Harry's Little Black Notebook
by Lady Celestial Star
Summary: The prequel story of Harry's life, as portrayed in my first story, Exploring Harry Potter's Life. Harry is six years old and is forced to endure the hardships of living with the Dursleys, who are much worse behind closed doors than people suspect. Thankfully,several escape routes are available to him, but can he find them and keep them open?
1. RIP Exploring HP's Life For Now

**Due to the threat of having my story eradicated by the fanfic police, I pulled my own story: Exploring Harry Potter's Life. It was either cowardly flight or honorable withdraw; I'm not too sure which. I hope to find a safe place to upload it, where I won't be forced to remove it later. And if you know of a place, for goodness sake! LET ME KNOW! Another hope is that I can receive word that I can upload the story on this website once more!**

**(Days later) Apparently not...**

**This story is a companion piece to Exploring Harry Potter's Life. It's the story shown in the Recollection Scrolls and the Scattered Shots, Including one that I really wanted to put up, but I didn't have time.**

**Seeing as how this is not a "Reading the Chapter" fic, these may be shot out a little more frequent then once a week, but I can't promise anything. **

**I don't own Harry Potter...God, I miss my first story, do you have any idea how hard it was to DELETE MY OWN STORY? And then watch it get taken down, when I tried to revive it?**

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It had been six years since Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid had dropped Harry Potter off at the Dursleys. Six long miserable years had passed, all the while; Harry's baby fat and clothes that actually fit him quickly disappeared to make room for extremely baggy clothes, to hide the fact that Harry weighed less than half of what his cousin Dudley was.

Harry got up earlier than he had intended and walked out into the garden. His Aunt Petunia told him the night before, to get out of her way in the kitchen that day; as she was going to be practicing how to make Dudley's birthday cake that day. She didn't need him underfoot, though he would have been more than (for the want of a better word) happy to help.

He went and sat on the sidewalk, the sun blasted down on the back of his neck and the heat blasted through the large, thick sweater he was wearing. He tugged the hot sweater over his untidy haired head and removed his shoes, then dipped his small toes into the small little puddle from the rainstorm that had struck Little Whinging the day before.

He smiled at the still coolness of the puddle and sat daydreaming for a good twenty minutes, he had to be daydreaming, he was watching a cat reading a street sign.

He turned his attention back to cooling his toes in the rain puddle when he heard a purring beside his elbow. He looked down quickly and saw the tabby cat, nuzzeling against his elbow.

"Hiya kitty! You're a good kitty, aintcha?" he said stroking the cat's fur slowly. The cat climbed into his lap and curled down in the sun. "What were ya doin' over there?" he asked the cat, but the tabby said nothing.

"You're a pretty kitty. " he said stroking the cat's fur, the cat purred louder and licked one of Harry's fingers. "Whatchor name?"

The cat only purred.

"I'm gonna give you name, a good name...how about...Tootsie?" said Harry smiling widely, wiggling his own toes. "Do you like your name, Tootsie?"

Tootsie purred loudly and nuzzeled her head against his small chin.

"Okay, Tootsie, we're going to hafta be really quiet, Aunt Petunia don't like cats." He stroked the cat's fur slowly.

And there they sat for the rest of the day. The mailman walked past him and chuckled as he saw the young boy sitting on the side of the walkway and scratching under the cat's furry chin. He had never seen a kid sit so still with a cat on their lap, let alone a small boy. He continued on his way, not inquiring about the cat, and not disturbing either one of them.

It was the most peaceful day Harry had ever had, that is until he noticed Uncle Vernon's car pulling up the street after working at Grunnings. Before Uncle Vernon had even entered the drive, he slammed the brakes on and put it in park.

"What are you doing out here? Get in the house." he spat.

"But Auntie..." stammered.

"Don't talk back to me, get in." snarled Uncle Vernon, Harry stood up quickly and ran to the front door. Uncle Vernon looked down at the cat and growled, "Scram!"

The cat gave him a hiss but remained where she was. The man took a step back, this reminded him of something, but what was it?

It was later on that night that Harry finally came out of the house, He had a small dish of fish and a saucer of milk.

"Tootsie? Tootsie, where are you?" he whispered out into the darkness. There was no answer, until he felt something small purr against his leg. "There you are!" he said happily. He laid the two dishes down on the ground.

"Eat up, Tootsie, I don't know how long I can stay out here." He ran his hand over the cat's fur and watched as she lapped up the milk and devoured the piece of tuna.

"Don't mind Uncle Vernon, he don't like animals. You should find yourself a nice home, there is a lady down the street that has a bunch of cats, it's got a big garden when lots of pretty roses and even a batch of catnip." he said as he picked up the cleaned plates. "She'd love to have you I'll bet. There's Auntie, I'd better go in. See ya, Tootsie." He took the dishes back inside the house.

The cat watched the small boy go inside the house, and then strolled leisurely down to the house described by the young boy. She wandered in through the cat flap in both the gate and the front door and entered the house.

"There you are, Minerva! I've been waiting all day for you! Did you find out anything?" said the lady who was sitting in a rocking chair beside a fireplace.

Where the tabby cat was, there was now a tall, lean woman, with a bun in her hair and wearing a black floor length cloak. She sat down in a wicker chair sitting across from the woman in the rocker.

"What did you do all day?" asked the woman.

"I spent the entire day with Harry." said the stern looking woman, though her eyes were devoid of that particular feeling, it was filled with a sort of longing. "He named me, Arabella."

The woman smiled warmly. "You've always had a name."

"But he gave me a name that wasn't associated with my birth name." said the Minerva faintly.

"Oh…he always was a little darling. So, did you find out anything?" asked Arabella eagerly.

"They are very strict, and quite coarse, but other than that, I didn't take any notice of abuse." said Minerva firmly, the fondness gone from her voice. "What attracted you to that notion?"

"Just the way he walks sometimes, and the way he's so jumpy and alert." said Arabella.

Minerva thought carefully, "Keep an eye on him, if something else comes up, let me or Albus know." she turned to walk towards the door. "Neither him nor I want to lose him, my nephew, his grandson."

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**I thought I would upload this on my birthday! It's not as polished as I would have liked it, but you know, just something to kick it off! :D**

**Please Review! **

**So, here's to another story! **

**Sincerely yours:**

_**Lady Celestial Star**_


	2. First Known Encounter With Dumbledore

**I had Heart of Auir Take Two post a review. I took his reveiw down, because it was harrasment, not a review, Here it is. You guys tell me what you think.**

Heart-of-Aiur-Take-Two

I flubbed my spelling. So what? I at least understand the conception of the character selections when you upload a fic.  
By the way, a piece like this is perfectly fine. You're not covering canon while covering canon. Good, do more of this and I won't have to report you AGAIN for plagiarism.  
Yep, that was me. _  
HA HA! You got owned!

Heart-of-Aiur-Take-Two

**What kind of nitwit uses that saying any more "You got owned"? Bloody moron. And oh look, he's entered the realm of Cyber Bully, bet his mother's proud. I don't know what he means by the character selection thing, if he means that I didn't put another person on the main character part. He meets so many people, there is no point in putting a second one.**

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**I would like to encourage to the other Authors on this site that if you get messages like that, please notify the Administrators, because what that was, could be labeled as Cyber Bullying and Harassment, and I fully intend to see that It is stopped, and remove the option of anonymous reviews, that's the only way he can bully people. ****Also, you will notice that you cannot send an anonymous review, that is how Heart of Auir posts his reviews, so I cannot allow him to do it to me again.**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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The next day, Harry got up early again, but was unable to find his little Tootsie, which was a good thing. For Uncle Vernon had just announced to the rest of the family that his sister, Marge, was coming for a two week stay. If Ripper II had gotten ahold of Tootsie, his poor little kitty wouldn't have been around much longer.

He sat in the shade of the only tree left on the Dursley's property and breathed in the sweet, late spring air. He missed his little cat, but she was safer away from him, especially with his animal hating relatives.

"Boy! Where are you?" came a shrill voice from the kitchen.

Harry sighed and stood up, knocking the bits of grass and dirt from his baggy trousers and walked swiftly into the house. Not quite knowing what she wanted, but he had a feeling that she wanted him to do the shopping again. It was the day that her favorite soap was on.

"You called Auntie?" he asked innocently as he stepped into the kitchen.

"I need you to go to the Market and get the things to make dinner, then get back here double-quick, you're going to make dinner." she thrusted a long list into his hands and a few ten pound notes. He walked out the front door and walked quickly down the street reading the ingredients listed on the small piece of paper and the money clutched in his hand.

"Whelks again, she's gotta have something else besides this." said Harry shaking his head. But he knew that if he didn't get the whelks, he would have to "play" with Aunt Marge's dog, and that wasn't a good idea. It was only a few blocks to the local supermarket and when he entered the supermarket, he noticed something that stopped him cold.

There were men in dark suits running about waving guns and telling everyone to get down. Harry turned to run out of the store, but one of the men had reached over and grabbed him roughly by the neck and pulled him back inside the store, before he could even squeak out a cry for help.

"Get in here you little twat!" growled the masked man throwing the boy down onto the ground. "Don't need you screaming to the coppers now do we?"

One of the cashiers scrambled forward and pulled the little boy over to himself, "Careful kid, one wrong move and they'll blow your 'ead off." he whispered hurriedly. He pulled Harry back behind himself where an elderly lady shielded him with her body.

"You stay behind me dearie." she whispered quietly.

"Oi! Kevin! The Coppers are 'ere!" shouted another masked figure, moving away from the window quickly. The group, ten in all, moved all the citizens towards the back of the store and held them there. Despite the police officers swarming about, they continued to loot the place for all the money the store contained, and that included some of the people.

"Come on you lot! Hand over your wallets and purses, won't hurt cha' if you do." said one of the masked men. People began to rummage through their purses and pockets trying to get their money together and handing it over quickly to the man with the sack.

The elderly woman shielding Harry reached into her bag and brought out her small change purse. "Now you stay back there dearie, they won't even take notice of you with me here." she said trying to keep Harry calm, it was failing, he was crying loudly and clutching at her crocheted shawl.

"Someone shut that little twerp up!" said one called Kevin, who was pacing back and forth worriedly.

"It's alright dearie." said the elderly woman trying to soothe small lad. He covered his face and tried to remain silent.

"What are we going to do? They got them bloody cops all over the place!" said one of the men towards the front of the store.

"You said this would be easy, Kevin! A quick pop in, and then we pop back out with a few hundred pounds and we would have left. No muss, no fuss." said one of the gunmen quickly. "Now look where we are! In a bloody grocery store, with half the ruddy police force!"

"We'll get out of this, look who we've got, a bunch of hostages." said the one called Kevin.

"Don't you watch those American shows on the telly? Haven't you ever seen what happens to the stupid blighters who take banks and liquor store's customers hostages? They get their bloody heads shot off!" said one of the men in the back.

"That's only on the telly!" said Kevin shortly. "This is the real world."

"THIS IS THE POLICE, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES, TILL WE COME IN!" said a man, speaking thought a megaphone.

Kevin, who seemed to be their leader, rushed to the window and shattered it with the butt of his gun.

"Oi! We've got hostages! You'd best not come in here!" said Kevin loudly. He then grabbed one of the female cashiers and held her out in front o him. "See! Don't you come in here, if you want her to see her family again!" They moved quickly away from window and everyone was pushed back. "Should have used the whiny brat, would have had a better shock value."

"Now what the hell are we going to do?" asked one of the men.

"Will you shut up?" snarled Kevin. Sweat began to fall down his face, he had to think quickly. How was he going to get himself out of this? Screw the rest of them, they didn't matter to him, never did. He just wanted to save his own skin.

Harry watched all this occur with terrified eyes, he didn't want to die. He couldn't die, he was only a kid, and he wanted to go home…

_But where is that really?_ said a quiet voice in the back of his head. _You've seen the other kids in your class, they couldn't wait to go home, they were happy to be home, they had parents, siblings that loved them, what do you have? You have no home…_

_You have a prison…_

Hours later, they were still in a standoff, between the police and the criminal element. People were still huddling together in the center of the market and the elderly lady was still trying to calm the poor, lonely child and bring him some comfort.

"Now, now dear, we'll be alright, they won't keep us here for much longer." said the elderly woman.

"I wanna go…" Harry sobbed.

"I know dear, I know. They'll let us go home soon enough." said another woman nearby. "And if they don't, the police will come in and save us."

The lights in the window were beginning to kick on as the night began to arrive, Harry was getting more and more worried. Not so much towards the villains going about with the guns and everything, but the fact that he wasn't back yet, with the groceries, and Aunt Marge must surely be at Privet Drive by now, and she's always hungry after the train ride. If she didn't get what she wanted and before supper time…

He lunged at the door but was met with a piercing pain in his shoulder; he fell to the ground and lay there, not daring to move. His shoulder felt as if a hot poker impaled itself into him.

"YOU MONSTERS!" shrieked the old woman. Harry couldn't move, the pain was too great and he felt himself get unusually sleepy.

But something strange had happened; he could feel a sort of whooshing and the shouts of someone saying some very strange words. He lifted his head and looked as high as he could up to the person who mumbled those strange words.

The figure was cloudy, but he could see the whiteness of his hair and the twinkling blue color near where his eyes would be. Before he could even hope that his eyes would come back into focus, he fainted.

He awoke suddenly and found himself on the bed in the room Dudley used to store all his broken toys, and unread books, he discovered he was in a pair of fleece pajamas and tucked safely into bed. He slowly gripped his shoulder and found to his amazement, that the bullet wound was gone; he looked around quickly, trying to find the man who brought him there. But he could see no one. He stood up and walked towards the window quickly and saw a man strolling leisurely down the street. It was the same man, it had to be, he had the same white hair as the man before. Harry hurried down the stairs, and flung his tiny little body out of the house. He tried to chase after the man, but was unable to catch up. The darkness seemed to have swallowed him up.

"Please….take me wit cha'." Harry said faintly, he turned and walked back to the Dursley's darkened house. "I don' wanna be here." tears began to stream down his face.

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**Please review, though you now have to sign in and review. **


	3. Chapter 3 Breakfast at Dursleys

**Okay! Here's another chapter! Sorry about the removing of Anonymous review settings once again, I thought it was for the best. But here is a bonus for you! I have uploaded the next chapter, A NEW chapter on my first story, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and tell you where to find it! Go to my profile and you'll see it. The new chapter is the Scroll that I mentioned a long time back that I didn't think it was quite the time to put it out. It's a good one trust me! When I update here, that means that I uploaded another chapter on Exploring Harry Potter's Life!**

**Also, I had someone call these chapters one shots. They aren't. It's going to be his entire school life, everything that I had put in Exploring Harry Potter's Life is going in here. **

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

Harry had woken up downstairs in the little cupboard under the stairs. He knew that if he was ever caught sleeping in a bedroom besides the cupboard, he would recieve a flogging as one he had never had, courtesy of Uncle Vernon. So once he had come back into the house, he changed his clothes, hiding the really nice pajamas, and flopped himself on the tiny little bed in the cupboard.

He wanted to find that man, and ask him to...well...do to something. He didn't know if strangers could help, but the teachers had always told them to not trust strangers, but Harry couldn't understand why or how this man knew where he stayed.

He wandered into the kitchen, seeing that no one was in there, prepared breakfast. He opened the refridgerator and looked about inside to see what ingredients he had to play with that morning. It wasn't much to go on with. He had plenty of eggs, some peppers, butter, and some of the leftover homemade cheese soup he had made a few days ago.

He tilted his head in a childish way of thinking, and decided to throw all of that together. He dragged the three largest chairs in the kitchen over to sink, counter and the stove. It took him only a few minutes to get the main part of the breakfast down, keeping the omelets warm until someone from upstairs would come down and claim a few.

He looked down at the omelets, but saw that these would not be enough to feed Dudley, or his demanding aunt. He looked quickly through the spice racks and pantry and found enough ingredients to make scones.

As he finished taking the scones off the baking sheets his Aunt Petunia came down the stairs, she was not ususally a late riser, but it seemed that even her habits could be altered.

"Oh...my head..." she said rubbing her head. "Is breakfast ready, boy?" she snapped as she walked into kitchen.

"Yes, Auntie. I've got omelets and scones all done. I'm gettin' the juice ready now." siad Harry mashing bananas, oranges, and raspberries.

"Make it quick boy." she groaned as she sat down.

He hurried quickly over to her with a plate of omelets, scones and a large glass of the juice he had made.

"I'm sorry that I didn't make dinner last night Auntie." said Harry in a whimper.

"What are you talking about you stupid boy?" snapped Aunt Petunia, "You made that fish pie just like always. Now get on with it!" Harry couldn't understand it, he didn't make any fish pie last night. He couldn't have, he didn't have the ingredients there, and they didn't eat last night, there was no missing ingredients from the pantry or the fridge, and no take out boxes. He wanted to ask what she meant, but couldn't, questions were forbidden.

A little later, the rest of the house hold came down. Harry had to remake more omelets after Aunt Marge, Uncle Vernon and Dudley had eaten all that was on the plate. Thankfully, Harry had made a large amount of scones that even Dudley was getting full of them.

"Well that meal was merely adequet." said Aunt Marge, giving off a large burp and and wiping her mouth on the napkin.

"Thank you, Aunt Marge." said Harry automatically as he cleaned all the dishes and cookware. He had to keep reminding his small frail self, that in order to keep his small, frail self alive, he had to be saintly polite.

"Hmph, boy needs a change in attitude Vernon. Best teach him to mind better." sniffed Aunt Marge.

Harry could only ignore her. He knew, even at the tender age of three, that she only wanted to wind him up and get a reaction, make his life as miserable as she possibly could. And boy, could she ever.

He took his leave after finishing up the dishes and wandered out into the garden. Noticing that Aunt Petunia had left the pruning sheers out, he took the subtle hint and began to work in the garden.

After what felt like hours, he got up and decided to get lunch started, however when he opened the door to the kitchen, Ripper the fourth came careening out and completely destroyed the flower bed Harry had just worked on.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" screeched Aunt Petunia angrily.

"I didn' do nuthin!" said Harry quickly, but he knew it wouldn't do any good.

Due to relatives visiting the people next door, Harry managed to avoid the punishment that Uncle Vernon always preferred using when things went wrong, despite if Harry had caused them or not. But that only meant that Harry had to stay locked in his cupboard for, at the very least, the rest of the day. But to Aunt Marge's disgust, they had to eat out for the rest her visit, because they decided to keep Harry in cupboard for an additional two days. However though they did let him out for a bathroom breaks, but only at designated times, but not a morself of food did they let pass his lips, he was lucky to get water.

After the relatives had left from next door, then Uncle Vernon finally had his way.

A half hour later, the Dursley's were sitting in the Emergency Room of the local hospital. Harry sat completely rigid as the doctor wrapped his broken arm and the nurse placed a Winnie the Pooh, band aid on his head.

"How did this happen?" asked the nurse.

"Fell down the stairs, Dudley and he were messing about." said Uncle Vernon shortly. The Nurse nodded with a kind smile, but the Emergency Room doctor looked at Uncle Vernon with a look of disbelief.

"How's that feel kid?" asked the Doctor kindly, he smiled down at the young boy.

"Better sir." said Harry quietly.

"Don't be rough with it now, let it heal. Just take it easy for a few weeks and we'll let you know when you can come back and get the cast redone or taken off." said the Doctor, still smiling at the boy.

After the Dursley's left, the Doctor watched as the family got into their car, not bothering to help the poor little chap, and drive off.

"What's wrong, Dr. Clark?" asked the nurse.

"Something about that family doesn't seem right. What I wouldn't give for some definite proof, but I have a feeling that, that boy didn't fall down those stairs." said Dr. Clark sternly.

"Now, sir, don't be going throwing accusations around, remember, that's how you got here." scolded the nurse.

"I didn't throw accusations around." shot back Dr. Clark. "He did something wrong, I had to set things right. I'm here for the people, not the hospital's reputation. Something you have obviously forgotten."

The nurse fumed and stomped out. turned and looked down at the small boy's vehicle as it drove off. "Hope all goes well, kid." he sighed.

**Thank you for reading! Please reveiw! Though you still have to sign in. Trust me, setting up an account here is really worth it!**


	4. Chapter 4 Harry's White Notebook

**Oh my GOD! I went through at least two revisions of this chapter! It went in one direction, then another…nothing made sense, story was going nowhere, then I decided on this. It worked out much better I think! Alright! remember what I said last time! If I upload this story, that means I uploaded Exploring Harry Potter's Life on livejournal! If you've never read that story, then the rest of this story will be a bit of a surprise, so really…doesn't matter if you do or don't. I would though; it'll give you heads up to what happens. But then again, it has a bunch of spoilers.**

**Have you seen my other story? That one is going to be uploaded willy-nilly, no schedule for that one, not one for this either now that I think about it.**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

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After Aunt Marge had finally left, Harry was finally allowed out of his cupboard and strangely enough, his arm was better, it wasn't completely, but it was enough so he could move it around a little easier with less pain. The Dursleys had taken Harry to another hospital, away from the nosey doctor who couldn't seem to leave "well enough", alone.

It was a school day and Harry was meagerly excited to go back to school, he liked school well enough, but...Dudley's friends could find him a lot easier in the confined school yard, and they weren't exactly friendly towards Harry. And because of Dudley's influence, nobody else in the class was willing to be overly friendly with him either.

Oh, he had friends, but they never lasted more than a day. If he met with someone new, and wanted to be friends with them, they wouldn't be anymore past lunchtime. It was hard, going through kindergarten and part of the first year without anyone to really talk to, but he made the best of it. By reading everything he could get ahold of.

It didn't matter if he was reading a fairytale, with dragons and wizards and goblins, or if it was complete nonfiction, books on historical events, or scientific discoveries. Despite his tiny, six year old head, being filled with a staggering amount of knowledge, he didn't raise his hand in class to answer any questions. He did that once, and it didn't go too well when Dudley went home and told his parents.

Dudley hated school, never liked it one bit, the only part of school that he did like was lunchtime. It wasn't only just because that he managed to eat something; no it wasn't that at all. His mother would stick pasties, cookies, and candy in his bag, just in case that he got hungry. The snacks wouldn't last past the first playtime. No, the real reason he liked lunchtime, was so he could bully the rest of the kids out of their lunch and milk money. He managed to "earn" thirty pounds in a week. He could even bully kids in some of the class above them, not jus the ones in their own.

With that money he could buy even more sweets after school, but it couldn't help with his grades. Dudley wasn't able to read or write as properly as the other children in the class. He told his mother that all the words were jumbled about and no about of rubbing his eyes would solve it. The Dursley's even tried to see if Dudley only needed glasses, it didn't work.

The optometrist walked them through what he thought was best, and that was to see a specialist in dyslexia. Uncle Vernon turned a sick sort of green, but said nothing. When he got home, he ranted and raved about stupid doctors not knowing their own business. The teachers at the school unknowingly joined the ranks and told the Dursley's that their son would learn a lot more on a different system than the other students.

So, Harry had to practice and copy Dudley's chicken-scratch handwriting and then do Dudley's homework on top of his own. It wasn't all that hard, Harry only had to water down the words a bit more to make it sound like it came from Dudley's mind and then make sure the handwriting looked like it came from Dudley's hand.

The teachers never realized it was Harry doing the work. They only praised the Dursleys for helping Dudley understand his homework, even gave them a bit of a certificate for being wonderful parents. Harry knew better than to contradict that.

Harry had to keep doing Dudley's homework almost every day, the only time that Harry managed to get out of it, was when the teacher would send home artwork that needed to be colored or drawn. That, Dudley could manage, but nothing else. After a while, Harry could choose whichever grade he wanted Dudley to get, sometimes Dudley would get A's but mostly he would receive 'B's and 'C's.

However when it came to Physical Education class, it wasn't as easy to get Dudley a good grade, when he could barely kick a ball in any direction. Though, it wasn't easy for Harry to pass the class either, being the subject of Dudley's constant bullying, no one wanted him to join their team, therefore, Harry had to sit on the sidelines for most of the games. The teacher was a woman after Uncle Vernon's own heart. She was only there for the eventual pension and the free school meals.

If a child were to become hurt, she would just write it off as a clumsy act and simply ignore any teasing or bullying any year held. Today was no better; she had just seen the Potter boy run to the bathroom, nursing a bloodied nose. "Clumsy little fool." said growled under her breath. She told the children to line up and get ready to play a little bit of football.

Harry looked at himself in the mirror, after the flow of blood had stopped; he noticed that his nose was sort of disjointed. He remembered reading a book on old time medicine and took the sides of his nose and pushed then back into alignment. He looked at his nose in the mirror and deemed it back to normal.

When Harry came back they were just beginning to start playing. He liked football actually, but the only bad sad thing was, it wasn't often that he got to play. But this time, like all the others, he was chosen last, but he considered himself lucky to get to play at all.

The game ended with them winning a tie-breaker at the end, but unfortunately the day didn't end on such a good note. Well...at least he couldn't remember if it did. Dudley, for some strange reason, came over and shoved him onto the ground hard. Harry threw his arm up to stop Dudley from hitting him again. Dudley suddenly got thrown into the air and landed somewhat softly on an inflatable mat.

_How did that happen?_ thought Harry.

He woke up several hours later in the hospital. His whole body felt as if he had been beaten nearly to death. He looked around fearfully and gasped for breath, he couldn't breathe. It felt like a ton of bricks had crash landed on him, slowly crushing him. And to make matters worse, he didn't know where he was.

Suddenly, a muffled voice spoke overhead, he tried to see who the voice belong to, but his eyesight was cloudy and blurred.

"Its okay son, you're in the hospital. Don't you worry." said the voice above him, he wanted to cry out in pain, but soon the pain faded and he was left with a pleasant numbness. He felt his eyelids droop and he felt himself begin to fall back to the warming darkness of sleep. Before he completely fell asleep, he felt a sort of tingling going up his arms, down his legs and crossed his chest. The feeling that his chest was being crushed slowly faded into nothingness, and his breathing began to get a bit easier.

He then felt a gentle hand shake his stomach slightly, and the same kind, muffled voice spoke once again.

"This man wants to talk to you quick, then you can go back to sleep. Alright?" said the voice softly.

Harry nodded but discovered that doing so was a bad idea. The pain wasn't completely gone and he wasn't numb all over.

Another voice came from the mists; it sounded stern, but held a faint tenderness inside.

"Lad? I've got a quick question, who hurt you?" said the second voice.

Harry gave a groan and thought hard as he dared. He had no idea, he didn't even remember going home, but he must've. He could hear the muffled voices of the Dursleys. So he must have been home, they wouldn't have come to the hospital, if it had happened at school, they wouldn't be in the same room. They'd wait out in the waiting room.

"I don't remember sir, I only remember coming home from school" said Harry rubbing his head tenderly and regretting it very soon after.

"I can understand why you don't remember, boy. Listen, we have an idea who did it, but unfortunately, we can't prove it. Here's my card, if you're hurt again, look me up or call. Then we can get the people who hurt you taken away. Read me?" said the voice again; a small card was placed in the boy's hand. Harry held it up to his face and tried to read it, tried is the operative word.

"I think you need glasses kid. Hospital will get you hooked up." said the officer running his fingers through the boy's hair.

Harry put the card back down and sank into the pillows.

"You want someone to come and sit with you?" asked the owner of the first voice, he was a kind looking man with blackish hair. "Your _relatives_ took off."

"Go figure. Let me give my wife a ring, she'll come and sit with him. You get some rest, when you wake up, you'll see a lady here. That's my wife, don't worry, she's the gentlest thing on the planet." said the man belonging to the second voice.

"Well, if we got that all situated, we'll let you rest now. Come on Harry, you need some sleep. You've had one hell of a day." said the first man touching a few buttons on the machine and bringing the blanket up and covering the boy softly.

As they watched the small figure fall asleep, the man, wearing the policeman's uniform extended his hand to the doctor.

"James McFinn."

The doctor looked down at the hand and then looked at the man with a smile.

"Samuel Clark."

They shook each other's hand, taking a nonverbal pledge to help that small boy, protect him against the monsters he was forced to live with.

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**Thank you for reading! Please review! Though you still have to sign in, I don't want the person who shall not be named reviewing.**


	5. Chapter 5 Rehabilitation

**OKAY! NEW CHAPTER! And you know what that means, for those of you who have followed me since January, that means that Chapter 46 is up on livejournal! Also, I'm attempting to put that story on Point Given's site, but you know, I'm lucky if I can find time to write these!**

**You'll notice that they are pretty short chapters, but you know I've got three stories going on. So, once I get down with Exploring Harry Potter's Life newest chapter, I work on this one, and then I work on Forging A King. So far, it's working. Hope it keeps up, I'm going to try and get longer chapters though!**

**Also! Anonymous reviewers may now send reviews! It's a new thing with Fanfiction, moderate reviews. **

**I don't own Harry Potter**

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The next morning, Harry awoke, still in the hospital, but the Dursley's were no where to be found. The only other people in the room with him, was a nurse and a really pretty lady reading a book.

He made to move his arm so he could sit up, but he was rewarded with a sharp pain sent straight through him. He gave a weak moan, immediately the woman looked up,

"Don't move dear. You've had a bit of a rough time." said the pretty lady kindly. "I'm Mrs. McFinn, you met my husband last night, now you just relax and rest." she brushed his hair back and smiled as his eyes began to droop.

He fell back to sleep and allowed his small body to rest. A short while later, the doctor came back inside the room.

"He woke up, Dr. Clark." said Mrs. McFinn. "But I convinced him to go back to sleep, he didn't need much convincing though." she added sadly.

"Thanks Holly, and call me Sam, you, James and I will be seeing quite a bit of each other for some time. Did he complain about any pain?" asked Dr. Clark quickly.

"He moaned a bit." said Holly softly holding Harry's hand. "James was right, his eyes...they're beautiful."

Dr. Clark smiled and pushed a few buttons on the console beside the bed. "I know, can hardly take your eyes off them. He's going to be out of commision for a long time."

"The poor thing, what sort of monster could do this to a child." said Mrs. McFinn sadly.

"He lives with a whole house full of them." snarled Dr. Clark.

It was three weeks till Harry could even get out of bed, but his legs were in such a painful state that he couldn't even walk. After Mr. McFinn got off work he stopped in and pushed Harry, who was in a wheelchair, out into the fresh air. He parked him next to one of the fountains, and helped him eat his lunch.

"So, how are you doin' Sport?" asked Mr. McFinn taking a bite out of his corned beef sandwich.

"Confused, sir." said Harry quietly.

"Why are you confused, kiddo?" asked Mr. McFinn with a smile.

"Well...I was wonderin' why you Miss Holly come and visit me everyday." said Harry even quieter.

"Why wouldn't we visit you lad? All alone in a big hospital, with so many doctor's and nurses comin' in and out you can't really keep track of them. Best keep someone nearby that you can actually recognize the face." he said kindly. Then his face darkened. "I heard the Dursley's stopped by yesterday."

Harry flinched horribly, "They...they asked when I was going to be able to go back to Privet Drive."

"I heard they got kicked out for being loud and obnoxious, don't let them get to you lad." said Mr. McFinn soothingly. "They aren't allowed back in this hospital again."

Harry drank his chocolate milk slowly. Suddenly a clear, crystalline voice came towards them. "It figures I'd find you with a sandwich in your mouth, James." said the voice with laugh.

"Hey darling. Just taking Sport out for a bit of lunch." said Mr. McFinn waving her over. It was his wife.

"Better hope the nurses don't get ahold of you, James." she said with a smirk.

"Why? What did I do?" he said taken aback.

"The nurses were going to have a lunch date with Harry. You're quite the little ladies man." she said kissing the top of Harry's head. Harry blushed furiously and looked away. "You're such a cutie. And Dr. Clark want's a word with you."

"What does he want, he wanted a lunch date with Harry too?" he replied with a wicked smile.

Mrs. McFinn smacked her husband playfully. "No, silly, he wanted to ask about the case with the...people we will not mention." she finished in a whisper.

"I'll go and give him the bad news." said James sadly, "Keep Sport and my sandwich company, dear."

He got up and headed back into the hospital, leaving his wife and his young charge outside. He headed straight to where the Doctor's Lounge was located and peeked in. He saw Dr. Clark laying on a sofa towards the back of room, fast asleep with a book held limply in his hands.

"Sam?" he whispered into the room. The Doctor jerked away and looked wildly about.

"Oh, James, it' s you. C'mon in, just resting my eyes." he said stretching his thin frame.

"You wanted to know about the meeting with the District Attorney?" said Officer McFinn.

"Yeah, can the Dursley's go to prison, or at the very least be shot?" said Dr. Clark eagerly.

"No."

Dr. Clark looked as if Officer James McFinn had just told him that he was Doctor Who from the old t.v. shows.

"What did you say?" he said weakly.

"They got off. The judge came in, heard our evidence and sided with them." said Officer McFinn angrily.

"But...how...? I sent them my report! We even had the hospital sign a grivience against them! How can that be?" said Dr. Clark in shock.

"It was the first case this judge just had." snarled Officer McFinn. "Couldn't see anything wrong with how the Dursley's were treating him. Said the incident was caused by home invaders."

"But you caught those guys!" said Dr. Clark.

"Yeah, but that didn't stop Dursley from saying it must've been copy cats. He mustve have seen a lot of crime shows." said Officer McFinn.

"But the cupboard...!" said Dr. Clark.

"They took the judge to their house, showed him a room, loaded with toys, even a tv. They say that Sport sleeps there." said Officer McFinn.

"But he doesn't! Harry says he has to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs!" said Dr. Clark.

"I know what he says! And I believe him! But the judge didn't and he was the one we had to convince." said Officer McFinn. He sighed deeply. "It's up to us, to make sure that he's alright, and he has a decent childhood."

"Us?" said Dr. Clark.

"My wife and I." said Officer McFinn.

"You'd better include me." said Dr. Clark with a smirk. "But what about the Dursley's I can't see them letting him come to us whenever he wants." his smile fading.

"I already had a talk with him." said Officer McFinn. "I told him that the entire police department, here and across the country, knows his name. And if he ever had a need for the police, we'd come, but how long it would take us...is another story."

"How'd he take that?" asked Dr. Clark with a laugh.

"Not too well, especially when the chief and the District Attorny stood behind me and listened to each and every word I said, and didn't bother to tell me off." said Officer McFinn, his smile growing larger and larger.

"Well, at least we have the enforcers of justice on our side, if not representatives." said Dr. Clark sourly.

"It's enough for now. All we have to do is try our best to get some indisputable proof, or wait until Vernon Dursley dies of a coronary arrest." said Officer McFinn.

"I can help with that last part." siad Dr. Clark with smirk.

"Plotting aside, what about Sport's legs, when can we start rehabilitating that?" said Officer McFinn.

"Well, we'll start when his legs get a little bit better. I don't want to start him too soon, or too late, either way will make him an invalid for life." said Dr. Clark solemly.

"What's the margin for error?" asked the veteran police officer.

"Two days." said Dr. Clark sadly.

"Shit. So that means..." said Officer McFinn looking pale.

"It's a shot in the dark." said Dr. Clark.

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**Alright! Well, just a shot out (though he doesn't come to this site) Happy Birthday "Buck"! And also, Rest in Peace Andy Griffith, you were a wonderful actor.**


	6. Chapter 6 Pizza and a Visitor

**Alright! Time for a new chapter! That includes Exploring Harry Potter's Life! And Forging a King! I know that some of you cannot read the first story with it on Live Journal, I have some chapters on proboards but there is a downside to that site, at least to ****my**** chapters.**

**I can only have a certain amount of letters when I upload a chapter, and if my veteran readers will remember, I have about let's see…12,000 characters or so in a few of them. Sort of like live journal but at least there I don't have to go and rebold all of my chapters. So, I'm going to discontinue my proboards site, just for a little bit anyway, till I can find more time. **

**I had two people on here; send me a review for Exploring on either this story or my Forging a King story. But the thing was…it was that they reviewed the story on live journal. Which is an alright site and really nice, but the reviewer didn't say anything about the story she/he reviewed in. So if you want to review for Exploring Harry Potter's Life, by all means do, but…*puppy dog eyes* could you review the chapter you're in? Much obliged!**

**I don't own Harry Potter, or Coca-Cola. Remember though, read to the absolute bottom!**

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It was only a week later that they deduced that Harry's legs and back were strong enough for Harry to start his rehabilitation. They started it off slowly, working with Harry's legs while he was lying down on the bed and when he was in his wheelchair. The pain was excruciating, but after a bit of hard work, he managed to get used to it, building a tolerance for it. The therapist reassured Harry that the pain would go away with a bit more work, so Harry's spirits were high.

During a break, the McFinns took Harry outside for a bit of fresh air, and a secret trip to a local pizza restaurant. Though it wasn't much of a secret, Dr. Clark told them to take him out for pizza, just so they could put a bit more meat on his bones. That and to get away from the clingy nurses that only made Harry blush furiously with their incessant cooing.

They wheeled Harry into the restaurant and pushed him up to a table. Harry looked around excitedly and breathed in the spicy yet sweet smell of the baking pizzas.

"What do you want to have first, Sport? You can have whatever you want." said Officer McFinn handing Harry a kid's placemat and some crayons.

"But don't get too full, we still have to go out for ice cream." said Mrs. McFinn with a bright smile.

"Hey there folks." said a young lady coming up to their table with a load of menus. "What can I get you guys to drink today?"

"She'll have raspberry tea with a lemon wedge, I'll have a Coke, and Harry...what do you want Sport? Lemonade, soda, water, punch, name it." said Mr. McFinn.

"Umm...what are you having?" asked Harry meekly.

"Coke, Coca-cola. It's a drink that can take the rust off of car battery, but it tastes good." said Officer McFinn with a smile. "You can pick something else, and then try a bit of mine if you want."

"I'll...I'll have punch..." said Harry meekly. The waitress smiled down at him and left to go get their drinks.

"Now what about the pizza? Do you want something special?" asked Mrs. McFinn still smiling at him.

"Anything is good." said Harry quietly.

"Aw, c'mon Sport, pick one! How about if we try a sausage and pepperoni pizza?" said Officer McFinn.

After the waitress came back and took their pizza order they spent their time waiting by chatting with each other.

"So what do you do, Miss Holly." said Harry meekly.

Mrs. McFinn smiled down at the cute little boy. "I work at home, dear. I have a little at-home-bakery. I love baking so much that I just had to open my own business. I do fairly well at it too. I try and come with a new sort of cake at least every season.

"James tells me that you like to cook too, maybe someday soon, you can help me out. We'd have so much fun!" said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

"Oh, yes!" said Harry excitedly. "I'd really like that! I love cooking!"

"Do you like sports?" asked Officer McFinn.

"Yes sir! I like football and all kinds of other sports." said Harry happily.

"When your legs get better, I'll have to see how well you play." said Officer McFinn. Harry smiled shyly up at Officer McFinn..

"Do you have any other likes?" asked Mrs. McFinn smiling kindly at him.

"Um...I like to read..." said Harry meekly.

"Nothing wrong with that." said Officer McFinn with a smile. "Here's our food." The waitress came back and placed the bubbling hot pizza down on the table. "Tuck in kiddo."

"Oh, James." chided Mrs. McFinn. "You have to wait till it cools down first. See, that will teach you." she said shaking her finger and laughing at her husband as he quickly drank his soda to quench the burning sensation in his mouth.

They came back to the hospital, dodged the angry and rejected nurses and helped Harry back onto the bed, but the therapist had other ideas.

"Nope, we're going to start your walking about right now, lad. Give me a hand nurse." said the therapist happily and took Harry by one arm, the nurse with the other, and helped him to the walker. Mr. and Mrs. McFinn looked on worriedly.

"Thought Sam said that it was still a bit early for the walking part." said Officer McFinn skeptically.

"Nonsense, I know what I'm doing." said the therapist excitedly.

The moment that Harry's feet had touched the floor, and his small weight had hit his legs fully, he screamed. The pain was too much; it felt as if someone were crushing his legs with large boulders with daggers sticking out of them. Harry fell to his knees, but the screams refused to silence themselves. Officer McFinn picked Harry up off the floor and put him in the bed. Mrs. McFinn hurried out into the hall and screamed for a doctor, nurse, anybody who could help. She wouldn't have cared if the janitor had come running. As long as he had, at the very least, a shot of morphine on his person.

Dr. Clark came running down the hall as fast as he could and worked feverishly to ease Harry's suffering. Soon, Harry dozed off slightly and the pain from his leg, but the therapist wasn't so lucky.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? I TOLD YOU TO START SLOW! I TOLD YOU HE WAS FRAGILE! I TOLDYOU WE WEREN'T SURE IF HE WAS READY TO START WALKING! GET OUT OF HERE! OUT!" shouted Dr. Clark angrily He shoved the therapist out of the hospital room and turned his attention back to the small boy.

Dr. Clark placed a gentle hand on Harry's leg and felt up the leg tenderly.

"His leg, it's pounding…his veins are inflamed, we'll have to do a few tests, but…I think…" said Dr. Clark sadly.

"No…" said Mrs. McFinn sadly.

"There's no fixing his legs now." said Dr. Clark, slamming a clenched fist down on the table beside him.

"Maybe if we wait a bit, let his legs strengthen up a bit more." said Mrs. McFinn hopefully.

"That may take years, if it even happens." said Dr. Clark bitterly. "I was supposed to help him, heal him. I only made things worse." tears began to form in his eyes and drop slowly down onto the sheets.

"Wasn't your fault, it was that reject from a torture chamber that did it." said Officer McFinn, his voice cold as steel as he held his weeping wife. "Too bad I can't arrest him."

"Why not?" said Dr. Clark shortly.

"Harry could sue him, but not arrest him." said Officer McFinn. "I can't picture the Dursley suing him. Maybe just to get the money, that I _can _see him do."

Harry woke up a few days later, his legs felt as if they were on fire and he couldn't seem to move his toes without a sharp pain sent through his foot. He looked around the room, nothing had changed, except the flowers were different and he had a giant stuffed lion in the corner. Both Mr. and Mrs. McFinn were beside the bed, both of them were leaning against each other and dozing gently.

"_They were so happy the other day"_ thought Harry sadly. "_Maybe if I try really hard, and get back on my feet…_" He smiled to himself and snuggled back down to sleep, trying to walk today would have been a bad idea, maybe tomorrow.

He didn't notice Dr. Clark standing in the doorway, he smiled as he saw Harry settle back to sleep. He was happy to see that Harry had woken up, it didn't bother him that Harry had gone back to sleep. He walked slowly into the room and tucked Harry in.

"Mmff…Sam?" said a groggy voice coming from the side of the bed.

"Evening, James. Just stopped by to see how Harry was doing, he woke up for a little bit, but he went back to sleep." said Dr. Clark

"Damn, was hoping he'd see the lion Holly got him." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"He noticed it, he was sort of reaching towards it, but it was just a tad out of his reach." said Dr. Clark with a smile. "What are we going to do about Harry not being able to walk? I can't let him go back to the Dursley's, especially when he's this hurt." his eyes glaring at nothing in particular.

"I tried getting custody of him, I really did. But that nincompoop of a judge still says that Dursley is an innocent man, taking care of his orphaned nephew." said Officer McFinn rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, and I'm Merlin." said Dr. Clark. "I wish I was, it's going to take more than just my medical degree to help him get the strength to walk."

Much later that same night, when everyone had either fallen asleep or started on their midnight rounds, a strange man with grizzled white hair and white goatee, made his way down the hall and silently entered the room where Harry slept. He walked inside, and looked slowly around; he saw the dark forms of two people sleeping beside the bed and waved his small stick-like object over them.

After he made sure they would not disturb him, he moved slowly towards the bed. He looked down at the small boy, a saddened expression on his countenance.

"Such a small child, this is the young one that defeated Lord Voldemort? Must have been a weaker man than we had originally thought." he said with a raised brow.

He picked up the chart beside the bed Harry slept in. "Hmm…according to this chart, your legs are severely damaged. Let's see how your core is." He reached over top of the boy and directly above his heart he put his thumb and middle finger together and pulled upward. Just then a shimmering sphere came out of Harry's chest.

"That is strange. I've never seen a core this bright, and yet so broken." said the strange man. The small sphere had many small and thin cracks webbed across the entirety of the sphere, some of the cracks seeped deep into the heart of the core, but it didn't connect to it's shiny center. "How many times have you been wounded?" he looked down at the small form and smiled sadly. "You've been hurt so tragically but you still retain your innocence. That in itself is a marvel. Must be one of the powers of your core…the strength and resilience of your innocence."

He pulled the core closer to himself, walked over to the window and waved his hand, which caused the clouds to shift and the moonlight to seep through and land in the window of the hospital. With his hand, he magically scooped up a handful of the moonbeams and swirled them around the core. The moonbeams then absorbed itself into the orb. The cracks slowly sealed themselves up.

Slowly he put the orb back into Harry's chest. "There you are, take care of that core lad. You'll find that it's one of a kind." With that the man took his leave. But before he did, he turned and smiled at the sleeping form. "That newly repaired core should fix your legs with time, lad. I hope you have enough sense to strengthen your legs and if you do, you may find your hard work will be rewarded."

And then the man disappeared.

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**Thank you for reading! Please review! The therapist reminds you of Lockhart doesn't he? And before you ask, no, the man at the end was not Dumbledore…that man was someone completely different. And if you've read Exploring Harry Potter's Life, you'd know right off the bat who that guy is :D**

**If you've read the last chapter of Forging a King you will remember that I've decided to put up a Question of the Chapter! Just to see if you've read all the way to the bottom!**

**Question! What magical object from the Harry Potter books/movies would you want to have for your own, and why? **

**I'll pick one and it'll go at the top of the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7 Halfway Adoption

**Okay! Another chapter and all three stories are now updated! You guys don't know how lucky you people are to get a chapter right now, my main computer crashed, and two, I've been playing Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, I didn't want to stop :D**

**Okay for those of you who answered "The Question of the Chapter" thank you so much! I had quite a few responses! And for those who didn't…shamey shamey…**

**I couldn't pick a favorite so I'll put all of them!**

**8SimpleSecrets:** Hm...does Fawkes count as a magical object? Then there's a pensieve, but I'd need a wand...Or...one of the statues knight statues/armor guys from Hogwarts corridors ;P let's just go with everything, shall we?

**DraconaXelphos: **Anyway, the magical object I would want would be a time-turner because I am the image of a Ravenclaw with Slytherin tendancies and would love the extra time to study and read and the like.

**ceara1888: **I'd want a magic wand (that works) so I could use magic.

**Jannice Sace: **I think I'd like to have the Hand of Glory, it'd be useful when I need light and everybody else is asleep...

**Nemi Jade: ** And the magical object... it's a tie between the invisibility cloack and the two way mirrors.

**Guest: **the Deluminator! it would be brilliant to have something that can take me to the place i need to go and to turn on/off the lights when i'm too tired to get out of bed!

**That's all of the people that answered the question! Now look to the bottom and you'll see another one! Me personally, I would want a broomstick, Firebolt!**

**Also! My main computer crashed and I don't have Word on the computer I'm using. So if I spelt a word wrong, yeah...please don't tell me I spelt a word wrong. It'll only piss me off more than what I am now and It'll take longer to update my chapters.**

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The next morning, Harry managed to sit up and enjoy what he could of the hospital's breakfast platter. Except the jell-o, he refused to touch it. The McFinns had left to go home and take care of what needed to be taken care of and left him in the capable hands of Dr. Clark, who at just that moment entered his hospital room.

"How are you doing this fine morning, Harry?" asked Dr. Clark with a smile.

"A lot better, thanks." said Harry brightly.

Dr. Clark looked confusedly at the monitors and where the morphine dripped down into Harry's bloodstream. It was at it's very lowest setting.

"You aren't in pain?" asked Dr. Clark wonderingly.

"No, sir." said Harry.

Dr. Clark frowned slightly and examined Harry's legs. What he saw stunned him completely. The majority of Harry's injuries were removed.

Over the next few days, Harry slowly began to strengthen up his legs, until finally he was able to walk around with the aid of someone's hand. The therapist tried claiming all the credit with the healing of Harry's legs, but the hospital would not hear of it. He was immediately stripped of his medical degree and was forced into another line of work. Thankfully, it was nothing do with medicine. He was now janitor at the local school.

Harry and Officer McFinn strolled around the park one afternoon, the man praised Harry for getting back on his feet, to the blushing delight of the young boy.

"I'm really proud of you, Harry. I think your parent's are on overdrive to try and watch over you and help you out."

"Do you think…they're proud of me?" said Harry quietly.

"If I'm proud of you, you can bet your buttons that they are a hundred times more proud of you than I am." said Officer McFinn.

Harry sat on the bench and smiled happily down at his knees.

"You look like you don't hear that word often." said Officer McFinn somewhat stiffly.

"Uncle Vernon says it to Dudley a lot, but Dudley never does anythin' good." said Harry meekly.

"That really doesn't surprise me." said Officer McFinn. "Hey, I've got an idea, if we can continue breaking down the walls, want to try and go for a track competition?"

"What's a track competition?" asked Harry.

"It's where you gather with a bunch of other kids of different ages and run around. That's basically it." said Officer McFinn.

"Do you think that I'm going to have the strength to do that?" asked Harry worriedly.

"If you don't, Sport, than we can just go and enjoy ourselves by watching." said Officer McFinn.

"I wasn' too sure if I wanted to get better." said Harry sadly.

"Why do you say that?" said Officer McFinn in shock.

"One of the nurses said that once I get completely better, I'm going back to the Dursleys." said Harry sadly.

Officer McFinn's eyes flashed in anger. "Well, I guess that would be right, but let me in on a little secret, it doesn't matter if you go back to them or not." said Officer McFinn. "I'm not going to just abandon you. I'll come around every day, as well as Holly."

"Really? You promise?" said Harry, his eyes widened in excitement.

"I promise, when you have to go back to them, I'll be right there every afternoon." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

Though that in itself took some doing. After Harry was released finally from the hospital, after his seemingly miraculous recovery, the Dursleys wouldn't allow Harry to so much as leave the house for about four days. Not to protect him, but just because they couldn't afford to lose him to the McFinns. Officer McFinn read the signs quickly and contacted an organization that had some experience in these matters.

With a smirk, Officer McFinn walked up the small path to the Dursley's house and rang the bell as hard and as quickly as he could. When the door opened, he was happily surprised with the sight of the young boy that he had come to adore.

"Officer McFinn!" said Harry with a euphoric whisper.

"Hello Sport!" said Officer McFinn patting Harry's head affectionately. "Best get your Uncle, I've got a something to tell him." he said with a smirk. Harry turned quickly and went to go find the man who brought about the events of him meeting his Officer McFinn. While he stood there, he heard the loud rumbling of Vernon Dursley's voice and it wasn't a second later that the large man's purple face met his own at the door.

"What the bloody hell do you want?" he asked angrily.

"Got a piece of paper for you to look at, it regards Harry." said Officer McFinn with a smug and satisfied look.

Uncle Vernon took one look at the paper, snatched it out of his hand and ripped it up in front of the seasoned officer. Officer McFinn only smiled; he reached into his coat and pulled out another piece of paper.

"I've got more where that comes from. There's no avoiding it." he said with a smirk.

Uncle Vernon scowled furiously and tore open the piece of paper. He read the paper quickly and stared at it, his piggish eyes began to bulge.

"What's the meaning of this?" he said with a hiss.

"That's a nice little piece of paper from the family courts. Different judge from the last time you slithered your way out of your due. It says that I am Harry's counterpart for "Sons Without Fathers". In addition to that, I can sign Harry up for things, like special lessons and whatnot, at no cost to you, don't worry your _smooth_ head about that." said Officer McFinn with a sneer. "Also, if I don't' see Harry almost every day, it won't go well for you if we have to go back to court."

"You dare threaten me, sir?" said Uncle Vernon hotly.

"Every chance I can, Vernon. Don't try anything either, I'm off duty." said Office McFinn smugly. "Can't be reprimanded."

Uncle Vernon began to grind his teeth loudly, and to Harry's surprise, Uncle Vernon reached behind himself, grabbed the scruff of Harry's neck and shoved him outside.

"Take him then, but I want him back here by six!" he growled.

Harry staggered out of the house and fell into Officer McFinn's arms.

"Come on lad, let's go to my place, Holly's got some muffins in the oven right now." said Officer McFinn.

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**Please review, and please answer the question! even if you don't' have a comment on the chapter, go ahead and answer the question, makes the reading a little bit more fun.**

**QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER!**

**If you could have any magical occupation, which one would it be?**

**I'll post the best one up on the next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8 All's Fair at the Fair

**Yay! Another chapter and you know what that means! Livejournal was also updated! **

**Alright, I was letdown last week, because I only had two people answer the question...sniff...**

**But this week...one...two...carry the...ELEVEN OF YOU ANSWERED IT! *Kermit yell!***

**Okay! For my Crossover story, I had several that were funny, so I had a funny and serious one that I liked. But here, I gave a serious (quote unquote) question, so I chose my favorite answer!**

**A Being Of Violet Fire: I would want to work at a Dragon Reserve. If only so that I could show up those prejudiced MOM wizards who think dragons are unintelligent beasts; by becoming the first Dragon Rider/Friend. Barring that, an Unspeakable would be awesome... Unlimited access to knowledge, time turners, and an almost James Bond/Knights Templar element to it.**

**Yeah, yeah the word "dragon" had me hooked, but that would be a kick $$ job, you can't deny that. *I don't know why that word turned blue.**

**I don't own Harry Potter. Remember! There's another question!**

**P.S. I have to go to another store again, and I might not update on Wednesday next week, we'll have to see.**

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Over the next few weeks, Officer McFinn and Harry both worked hard at trying to get ready for the upcoming track competition. If they weren't training for the competition, Officer McFinn and Mrs. McFinn were taking Harry to museums, shopping trips for clothes and the movies.

While at the McFinns' house one day, (the Dursleys had left to go and visit Aunt Marge for the week and begrudgingly allowed Harry to stay at the McFinn's, for Mrs. Figg was also out of town), Harry was sitting at the McFinn's kitchen table pouring sugar into his large bowl of porridge. Mrs. McFinn was happy to see that he was finally putting on some pounds to his extremely small frame.

"Well lad," said Officer McFinn putting his coffee cup down. "the races are in three day's time. Think you're ready?"

"Yes, sir!" said Harry happily. "I can't wait!"

"Now don't over excite yourself dear, you'll choke on your porridge." said Mrs. McFinn kindly.

"Yes man." said Harry taking a giant spoonful of porridge and putting it in his mouth. "What are we going to do today? Are we going to go to the police track?"

"Nah, I think we've trained you enough, maybe we'll run about an hour tomorrow and then the day before the race, but nothing more than that. I think you'll give them a run for their money." said Officer McFinn with a proud smile.

"If you're done with your breakfast dear, why don't you head off to take a little nap." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Do I have to?" whined Harry slightly.

"She's the boss, besides, you need to keep up your strength. After your nap, we'll go to the amusement park." Officer McFinn laughed as he saw Harry hurry to his room, which used to be their guest room, to take his nap.

"He's such a little cutie." cooed Mrs. McFinn.

"Coming with us today? Or do you think your mother is going to show up there?" said Officer McFinn.

"She wouldn't go to an amusement park, more of a reason for me to go." said his wife with a smile. "Besides, I want take a few pictures of Harry. I don't have any yet?"

"Have you even called your mother recently, Holly?" said Officer McFinn.

"No, I forgot to call her last month, so her forty pound letter is due any day now." said Holly bitterly. "I hate writing back to her, she always complains that I don't write nearly as much as she does."

"No one can write so much about so little like your mother." said Officer McFinn.

Holly giggled. "Hopefully she'll forget to write back, but I doubt that."

After Harry's nap, they hopped into Officer McFinns' car and headed off towards the amusement park.

When they got out of their car, they made their way to the entrance. Harry had a tough time trying to keep calm and keep a tight hold on Mr. and Mrs. McFinns' hands. The Dursley's had never brought him to one of these places when Dudley would throw a tantrum and scream that he wanted to go.

He looked around at all the different rides, games and places selling mountains of cotton candy.

"So what do you want to do first, Sport?" said Officer McFinn with a smile. "Do you want to go on a ride, play a game, or get some cotton candy?"

Harry looked quickly around, he couldn't decide what to do first, everything looked so inviting.

"I'll go get us some cotton candy to start with, while you boys decide." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

Officer McFinn picked Harry up and placed him on his shoulder. "Does that help, Sport? Can you see a ride that you want to go on?"

"Remind him that he's still a little too young to go on some of the rides." chided Mrs. McFinn carrying popcorn and two large helpings of cotton candy. "Here you are dear, try not to get any in James' hair."

"That ride!" said Harry pointing up to the large rollercoaster.

"That would be one of them that you aren't tall enough to go on." said Officer McFinn.

"Aww..." said Harry, trying very hard not to throw a temper tantrum like Dudley would until he got his way. He didn't want to cause the McFinns any problems. He didn't notice how both of the adults marveled at the fact that Harry didn't make a fuss, for not getting what he wanted. So he contented himself with taking a handful of cotton candy and putting it in his mouth.

"What ride can I go on?" said Harry, his feelings slightly crushed, though they rose when the sweet candy floss melted in his mouth.

"Well, you can go on basically any of them that isn't a roller coaster." said Officer McFinn looking at his brochure, while balancing Harry on his shoulder.

"Oh, what a cute little boy!" said a elderly old lady. The McFinns looked at the woman and looked at Harry with beaming smiles.

"He most certainly is." said Mrs. McFinn, she laughed quietly when she saw Harry blush furiously.

"You two must dote on that boy something awful." said the old woman.

"We do, we really do." said Officer McFinn, "c'mon lad, pick out a name in here and we'll go on it."

He held the brochure up to the boy's level and Harry looked at the words carefully.

"Frog one." said Harry.

Officer McFinn looked for the one Harry had mentioned. "Techno Frogs it is."

He took Harry over to a large large ride, that looked like a large flattened spider, the seats rose and fell as the ride went around and around, and then for good measure, the people were sent flying backwards in the same fashion.

"I'm going to sit this one out. You two have fun." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile, unbeknownst to the young boy, she brought a camera, and she was going to take a lot of pictures of the little boy's wonderful smile.

Harry and Officer McFinn climbed carefully into the small podlike thing and held on tightly. When the ride started, it went up down with such speed that Harry nearly fell out twice, thankfully, Officer McFinn noticed this and placed an arm around him and told him to hold on tight. It didnt' matter to Harry, he was having the time of his life.

After the ride, Harry came running out, though he was a little loopy.

"That was so much fun!" said Harry excitedly.

"What now, honey?" said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

"How about we play a game, haven't done one of those in a long time." said Officer McFinn. "Used to be pretty good at some of them."

They walked to the closest game they could find, a milk bottle toss. The person running it offered Harry a "deal" for balls to toss at the bottles.

"All right boy'o lets see what you can make of the bottles." said the man pointing to the bottles at the end of the booth.

Harry managed to knock two out of five of the bottles, but that only managed to get him a small toy.

"Want to try again?" said the man eagerly. Harry looked up to Officer McFinn.

"I'll give it a shot." said Officer McFinn rolling up his sleeves.

He took all three balls, pulled his arm back and on his very first ball he blasted the five bottles off the table. The man behind the booth gulped silently and said, "Well if you can get it again on another ball, then you get a big prize."

Officer McFinn smiled again, reared his arm back another time, and the same thing happened.

BAM! Another stack of bottles laid discarded on the ground. The worker gulped again.

"Do it again, and you'll get anything off the top shelf." said the man nervously. A small crowd had now come to watch and see what was going on.

Officer McFinn pulled back one last time slammed the ball into the last stack, knocking all of them onto the ground.

The worker stared at the fallen bottles. Officer McFinn smiled, "Either of you see something that interests you?" said Officer McFinn pointing to the top row.

"Get Harry that panda bear." whispered Mrs. McFinn. "He was staring at it when he threw all three of his balls."

"We'll take the panda bear." said Officer McFinn. The worker took the almost life-sized panda bear and handed it to Officer McFinn.

"There you go, Sport." said Officer McFinn handing Harry the stuffed panda bear, but took it back when he saw Harry was smaller than the doll. "I'll hang onto it for you."

It was late that evening that they made their way back home and Officer McFinn carefully carried the unconcious form back into the house, while his wife carried the stuffed toys, camera full of pictures and the remnants of the cotton candy and other snacks they had purchased at the amusement park.

They placed the teddy bear that James had won for Harry during a bottle toss game in the corner, and then after they tucked Harry gently into bed, they went to their own room and changed for bed.

"James?" said Holly as she brushed her hair in front of her vanity mirror.

"Yeah, Holly?" said James as he turned the page in the book he was reading. "She danced with her step-father." he muttered.

"What?" asked Holly looking at him in the mirror.

"Just a mystery in this Sherlock Holmes book. What did you need?"

Holly lowered the brush she was running through her hair. "I want to adopt Harry."

James looked up from his book, closed it, walked over to his wife and embraced her. "I want to adopt him too, but we can't. I tried everything I possibly could. I even called in the favor I had with the D.A. he told me that there was no legal way I could adopt Harry. What we're doing right now, is the only way we can have him."

"It's not fair!" weeped Holly bitterly. "They don't love him, we love him!"

"I know, I know all too well." said James quietly. "But the most we can do, is make sure that he's happy here. And to keep vigilance over him and make sure that Vernon doesn't do anymore damage to Harry."

They both climbed into bed and held onto each other, silently praying that somehow they would be able to get Harry away from the Dursleys for good, before they would lose him to the darkness known as death.

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**Alright! Apparently the stupid computer deleted my Question of the chapter so here we go again!**

**Question of the Day!: What was your favorite cartoon when you were younger?**


	9. Chapter 9 James' Pride and Joy

**Okay! Finally got this chapter done, this chapter was actually pretty much easy to type up, I just had to switch the point of views. **

**Here's the answer to last Question of the Chapter!: ****19811945: ****There were a few when I was younger - He Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Loony Toons (all of them), quite a few violent boy version cartoons.**

**There aint nothing wrong with watching the violent boy version cartoons. I love watching Dragon Ball, Rurouni Kenshin, and all the other ones. They rock!**

**I'm happy to have this chapter out today!**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Holly placed several sandwiches in a large picnic basket and many other little tasty treats, she made three of Harry's favorite sandwiches, and several of his favorite snack cakes, . She couldn't wait to see all of his hard work paid off during the track meet.

"Don't forget those sports drinks I picked up." said James, calling from the bathroom. "Harry's going to need to rehydrate. Had to ask Sam which were the best ones."

"I've got them in the cooler dear. But you forgot to pack your own drinks." she called from the kitchen with a tease in her voice.

"I put my Coca-Cola in there!" he said coming out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.

"You put them in your fishing cooler, we're taking the big cooler." she said.

James slapped his hand to his face. "Crud. Sorry hon."

"That's alright, I moved them into the cooler we're taking. Sorry to call you out of the shower." she said with a giggle. " Stop prancing around without your clothes on, we're already going to be late, go get dressed."

"Dang, oh well, you all set?" said James going into their bedroom.

"Yes I am, just need to take off my apron and I'm all dressed." said Holly.

"Well this is a switch. Normally I'm all set first." said James. "I'll be ready in a minute. Then I'll load the car."

When they finally got into their car and drove off, Holly looked at James.

"How did Harry get to the meet?" said Holly quickly. "I hope the Dursley's didn't try and stop him."

"Vernon knows better than to stop this, its a government sponsered event, it's suicidal to stop a kid from going there. A bus came and picked him up, the kids have to be there early for a sort of talk on being good sports and that they're each winners today." said James, "the normal moral boosting malarky that they tell little kids."

"Oh, James, you're horrible." scolded Holly.

"I was kidding." said James with a laugh, "I'd never say that infront of a kid, Sport was already taken their about a half hour ago. So, we'll get there about ready for Harry to start running about warming up."

"Are we going to meet Sam at the track?" asked Holly.

"Yeah, he needs to go and do a bit of volunteer stuff at the Animal shelter after eight o'clock, so he won't be able to stay at our place for long."

When they got to the track, they met up with Dr. Clark, who was leaning against his own car.

"I'm amazed you aren't in there." said James with a smile.

"They didn't let anyone in till now." said Sam. "I'm not too sure where Harry is, and I'm not too sure he'd come to me without you."

"I'm sure he'd come to you." said Holly encouragingly.

"Well, not nearly as much as he'd come to the two of you." said Dr. Clark with a sad smile. "I've only been around him at the hosptial, and the few times I've been to lunch at your house."

"Well, he'll warm up to you. Let's go in and find Sport." said James.

All three of them walked towards the entrance of the track field. They had to migrate through the crowds that were filing quickly into the stands. They looked around and saw all the kids coming out of a large building, they saw a small thin boy with wild black hair with large round glasses.

"Hey, kid!" yelled Officer McFinn, seeing Harry and leading his wife over to the lad by his taking her arm. He smiled broadly as he saw Harry's beaming smile.

"Officer McFinn!" shouted Harry. He rushed over to the man and threw his arms around his middle. Officer McFinn patted his head, while his wife hugged Harry tightly.

"You remember Dr. Clark, don't you? I told him that I got you set up for this and he wanted to see you run as well." said Officer McFinn nodding towards Dr. Clark.

"Hello Dr. Clark!" said Harry brightly, his smile grew bigger when Dr. Clark patted his head.

"How are you feeling today, Harry?" asked the doctor.

"Fine sir, just fine!" said Harry happily.

"You all set to wine all the races, Sport?" said Officer McFinn with a grin.

"Now Jim, they're supposed to do their best, winning isn't everything." scolded Mrs. McFinn.

"I know, I know, but I've got a feeling this boy's spirit is going to whip them all." he said winking down at the small boy.

"James," said Dr. Clark "You do realize that he hasn't been out of physical therapy for longer than three weeks? I can't even believe you signed him up for this."

"He needs the fresh air, besides you've been practicin' running, haven't you lad?" said Officer McFinn smiling down at the boy.

"Yes, sir! Every day, Officer McFinn was timing me!" said Harry, ecitement pouring out of him.

"And he's been getting better everyday." said Officer McFinn.

"ATTENTION, WILL THE PARTICIPANTS GATHER ON THE STARTING LINE FOR THE WARM-UP RUN?" called the loudspeaker.

"Well, you'd best run off and get warmed up Harry. Don't use your speed here, now, save it for the races." said Dr. Clark getting excited.

Harry nodded happily and hurried off to join the other runners.

When Harry was out of earshot, Mrs. McFinn looked up to her husband with a saddened expression.

"I wish we could raise him. Oh Jim, isn't there anything we could do?" she implored to her husband. He scratched his head. They've been through this.

"Trust me, Holly, Sam and I have tried everything to save that poor little guy from those monsters. That dumb ass of a judge thinks that the monsters were innocent of the abuse. That's what we get for appointing a judge that's still wet behind the ears. The District Attorney told me to leave it be."

"Why would he do that?" said Mrs. McFinn in shock.

"Dursley threatened to sue the police department for harassment. They wanted me to keep away from Harry as well, said I was inappropriate with him."

"Where do they live? I'll shoot them myself." hissed Mrs. McFinn. "You didn't tell me this part!" she shrieked.

"I proved to child-services that I wasn't, took a lie detector test and had them watch on a day of their choice. They approved my spending time with him. They're labeling it as something called "Sons Without Fathers" program or something. Only difference is that I can sign him up for stuff that the Dursley's won't. I just have to have him home by six every night."

"He's seven years old, I would think that he could stay out till seven or eight at least." said Sam Clark.

"Harry's the cook at that house, they need him home in time to cook dinner, and I don't get him until his chores are done. A regular little 'Cinderella' life he leads."

"Too bad there isn't a royal ball anytime soon." said Mrs. McFinn sadly.

They watched as Harry made his way around the large running track, the only blue shirted runner towards the front of the pack. The other color shirted runners were doing their best to keep up with him and orange and black runners.

When the warm up lap was over, Harry came back to the McFinns and Dr. Clark.

"Here's some water dear." said Mrs. McFinn handing him a large bottle of water from the ice cooler they had brought.

"Thanks Mrs. McFinn!"

"I thought I told you not to pour on your speed too early." said Dr. Clark with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't." said Harry simply.

Dr. Clark looked skeptical. There was no way that someone, who had just recuperated from having severe nerve damage in his legs could do what he had just did, let alone keep up with the older kids. "What races are you doing?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Well, I'm in all three sprints, the hundred, the two-hundred and the four-hundred meters. Then I am doing the three kilometer long distance." said Harry ticking the different races off his fingers.

"THREE KILOMETER? You are going to do the three kilometer?" said Dr. Clark with his jaw hanging.

"Yes sir." said Harry nervously.

Dr. Clark stared at him, then he looked at Officer McFinn.

"Did you give an okay on that?" he whispered to him dangerously.

"He wanted to do it, I wasn't all that keen on the idea myself. But, he showed some persistence, asking me if he could do it every single time I came to pick him up." said Officer McFinn shrugging.

The Doctor sighted. "Too late to back out now isn't it? Fine, but you pull out the moment you feel you can't take it anymore you got me?"

"Yes sir, I will." said Harry eagerly.

"WILL THE BLUE SQUAD PLEASE REPORT TO THE STARTING LINE FOR THE HUNDRED METER RACE?"

"Judging by your shirt Sport, that's you. Do your best lad!" said Officer McFinn giving Harry a pat on the back.

"Yes sir!" he said happily and ran off, waving to the three of them.

He hurried over to the rest of the blue shirted runners and posistioned himself at the starting. line. Harry couldn't wait for the starting pistol to go off, his legs were itching and raring to go. He could feel a sort of electricity go up and down his body.

The starting gun went off and the boys went sprinting down the track. Harry ran along with the rest of them, keeping the same speed as the others, but then when the finish line was got close enough Harry could feel a strange sort of energy under his legs, giving him a spurt of speed. In one second he was ahead of the pack, leading the others by at least a meter.

He could hear the McFinns and Doctor shout "ATTA BOY! WAY TA GO!" That right there made him want to go even faster, but he needed to save his strength for the rest of the day.

When the final heat of the hundred meter race came, Officer McFinn, his wife and Dr. Clark couldn't believe that Harry had managed to make it to the finals. That he was going to race against the fastest runners of each age group.

"I can't believe that he's strong enough for this." said Dr. Clark with an excited grin.

"You'll believe it when he wins." said Officer McFinn, pride eminating off him.

All three of them held their breath as the finals of the hundred meter sprint was about to start. Then the gun went off.

"GO FOR IT!" shouted Officer McFinn.

Harry ran as fast as he possibly could, he couldn't feel the electricity pulsing through his legs like earlier. But thanks to all the training and his light frame, he kept right up with the leader in black. Harry managed to put on a burst of speed towards the end and won by a mere two feet.

Officer McFinn kissed his wife tightly while Dr. Clark clicked the heels of his running shoes. Then Officer McFinn ran over to Harry, picked him up and tossed him lightly into the air and caught him on his way back down.

"YOU DID IT SPORT! I KNEW YOU COULD!" he shouted placing him on his shoulder. Harry laughed and hugged the officer's head.

For the rest of the morning, it went about the same way, Harry would sail through the rest of the sprints and end up in the finals and then the trial would really begin.

He was easily the fastest runner in his age group, but it took quite a bit hard work to get to front of the other runners. He had to one time re-race an orange runner due to a tie, but he managed to lean his head a little bit ahead of the other runner and beat them by less than half a second.

Harry came staggaring over to the McFinn's, and when Dr. Clark saw all the sweat dripping down Harry's face, he hopped into his car and went to go get Harry a large towel to wipe his face on.

He came back while the officials were setting up the fifteen-hundred meter run. He was happy to hear that the thirteen year olds and Harry wasn't going to take that particular race on, Especially if he wanted to do the three kilometer. While that was going to go on, Mrs. McFinn found a nice shady spot where they were going to have lunch, and when Dr. Clark went over, he wiped the sweat off Harry's face and handed him several bottles of cold water.

After the fifteen-hundred meter run had come and gone, the loudspeaker announced that lunch and a lengthy rest period was going to take place. Harry was happy, because he was getting a bit tired.

So, he leaned against the cool tree and munched on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"How are you feeling now, Harry?" asked Dr. Clark, taking a big bite out of a turkey and Swiss sandwich.

"Still great, sir! I can't wait till the next race." said Harry eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bit of jelly was on his cheek. Mrs. McFinn dabbed the jelly away from his cheek gently.

"Now take your time with that one, Sport. You have a long time to race in that one. Don't push yourself to start with, take it slow. Wait till you are almost done to 'book it'." We'll keep track of the laps for you. When you run past, we'll tell you how many you have left to do. 'kay?" said Officer McFinn. Harry nodded.

"And remember, what I said, if you feel like you can't continue, just drop out. You've done really great today. Forget great, you've done brilliantly! I don't remember anyone under ten years old winning a complete sprint, let alone ALL of them." said Dr. Clark with broad smile.

Once he had rested up and finished his lunch, it was time for the next and final race, there was to be no heats, but anyone who wanted to race in it, could. When Harry got to the starting line, he noticed that he was the only one.

"Remember, when you want to drop out, you can." shouted Dr. Clark. Harry nodded in response, and then they were all off.

Lap after lap, the McFinns and Dr. Clark watched as Harry inched his way towards the older runners, but soon he remained fixed at the fourth posistion. He stayed their all the while, that is until he heard three little words.

"LAST LAP HARRY!"

It was as if he had kicked on some internal after burners or something, because once those words left their lips, Harry began to sprint. He was fourth in line, but he began to overtake the other runners. When he flew past each one, they stared in shock and couldn't help but slow their own pace. He met up with the leader and slowly passed him just as he went turned the finally corner. Dr. Clark and the McFinns began to jump up and down excitedly. As Harry crossed the finish line, earning him first place, Dr. Clark was the first to reach him and hug him.

"THAT WAS AMAZING! YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT!"

"Hey, Doctor?" gasped Harry.

"What is it?" said Dr. Clark, holding arm's length.

"Now, I'm tired." panted Harry with a smile, Dr. Clark laughed. Officer McFinn picked him up and hugged him tightly. Mrs. McFinn kissed Harry on the cheek.

Officer McFinn held him close and whispered into Harry's ear.

"I'm so proud of you Harry."

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**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

**Here we go! Question of the Chapter! Last week we spoke of cartoons, but what about old tv shows? What is your favorite old t.v show? I don't care how old, here's a restriction, it can't be a show that is still filming new episodes.**

**For example; Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heroes, The Cosby Show, stuff like that.**


	10. Chapter 10 School Shopping

**Yay! Another chapter both for this story and the other two! **

**I've hit 110 reviews! YAY!**

**My question of the week seemed to stump a few of you, but one person managed to get one of the ones I had, had in mind. **

**A Being Of Violet Fire: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Christie"**

**But these two had two shows that I really couldn't decide:**

**hplover1999: ALF (that was a kick $$ show! loved it when he lipsynced to songs.)**

**PadfootFan1: Legends of the Hidden Temple (I always wanted to be on that show) Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego? (Another game show I wanted to go on.) Those were one of the first televised game shows for kids. I loved watching them. Wish they were still on.**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Harry got home that evening after the Track Championships, his neck gleaming with all the different medals he had earned. He waved to the McFinn's as they pulled away, and made his way into the house.

The moment he entered his house, a strong arm took hold of him and pulled him into the hall. It was Uncle Vernon. He put his large face dangerously close to the tiny boy's own face and growled menancingly.

"So lad," Uncle Vernon hissed, "did you have fun? Make lots of friends, did you?"

Harry began to shake furiously. He didn't want to pick a fight with his Uncle, not with him looking like that.

"What are these?" said Uncle Vernon angrily, looking at all the shiny gold medals.

"I-I-I w-won t-tho-those." stammered Harry. He dearly hoped that his Uncle wouldn't take them away.

Uncle Vernon tore the medals off his small nephew's neck and threw them onto the ground. Then he slammed his foot down upon them, smashing most and cracking the rest.

"Cupboard, now." snarled Uncle Vernon fiercely, he dragged Harry into the small cupboard under the stairs and locked the door behind his small nephew. With a ferocious smile on his face.

Harry sat down on his filthy mattress and sniffed sadly. He reached deep within his ragged little coat and pulled out a tiny ribbon.

_7 Year Old Contender_

Harry hugged the small ribbon and cried. His first medals, gone. He didn't even have a real chance to admire them. How was he going to avoid telling that to Officer McFinn tomorrow?

The next day, Harry got up and found his door unlocked. He went into the kitchen, and saw his Aunt Petunia in the kitchen, watching the morning news on the kitchen's tv.

"Mornin' Aunt Petunia." said Harry.

"Get cooking breakfast, then I want you to weed the garden before that man comes to get you." snapped Aunt Petunia.

"Yes ma'am." said Harry quickly hurrying over to the fridge and grabbing the carton of eggs and the juice.

When Uncle Vernon came down, Harry had finished making scrambled eggs and poured his Uncle a cup of coffee.

"So, is that ruddy police officer coming to fetch you again?" snarled Uncle Vernon.

"Yes sir." said Harry quietly.

Uncle Vernon snorted, "Don't know why he bothers with a worthless nothing like you."

Harry's looked down in shame. Harry couldn't figure out why did Officer McFinn chose to deal with him?

After breakfast was made, Harry hurried out to the garden and quickly set about his appointed chore, making sure to get every little weed out of the garden, so that he wouldn't be forced to stay at home.

It was much later when Officer McFinn and Dr. Clark came to the Dursley's front door. They knocked smartly on the door and waited.

Uncle Vernon snarled at them when he came to answer the door, but shoved Harry out to them. Officer McFinn and Dr. Clark stared at Vernon as they caught the tiny child.

"I want him back at the usual time, last night he was out too late." and with that he slammed the door.

"We were only late by one minute." said Officer McFinn to the door. "Nevermind, come on Sport, we've got some stuff to do today."

"What is it?" said Harry excitedly.

"Well, school's coming up and we need to get you some school supplies and some new school clothes." said Officer McFinn.

"The Dursley's don't..." said Harry.

"I don't care what the Dursley's say, they won't mind if I save them money on school supplies, not to mention new clothes." said Officer McFinn.

"But..." said Harry quietly.

"No buts. You're going to have new clothes, even if you have to come to our house to change every morning. Do you ride or walk to school." asked Officer McFinn.

"Dudley rides with his friends. I walk." said Harry.

"Works for me, if I work, Holly will come and pick you up for school at the corner." said Officer McFinn with a smile. Harry beamed up at him.

They stopped at the McFinn's house and picked up Mrs. McFinn and headed off to the local shopping mall.

"Have you had any lunch yet, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn looking in his rearview mirror. He smiled as Harry looked so happy as he watched the world pass him by.

"No sir." said Harry with a smile. He had just prepared the Dursley's lunch, but he hadn't prepared himself anything, but he wasn't hungry.

"You want to have lunch now?" asked Dr. Clark sitting beside the small boy.

"No, not yet." said Harry still smiling.

"Alright then, lets go and get you some of your school necessities." said Mrs. McFinn with a bright smile.

They entered a stationary store, and allowed Harry to pick out whatever notebook or folder he wanted, thinking he'd want one with a cartoon character or sports team on it. But he only came back with the plainest, non-licensed notebooks and folders.

"Don't you want another folder and notebook, I see some Count Duckula ones over there, sweetheart." said Mrs. McFinn.

"No thanks. That's Dudley's fourth favorite show, he'd take it from me at school." said Harry sadly.

Mrs. McFinn looked at Harry sadly. When her husband came over with an armful of crayons, colored pencils, pencils, pens and erasers she told him what Harry had just told her.

"If he takes your stuff, Harry, I'll have a thing or two to tell Vernon." said Officer McFinn.

"I don't want..." said Harry quietly.

"Alright then." said Mrs. McFinn, cutting off her husband. "Well here you are dear." she took her husband's armload and placed it gently into their cart. "Anything else we need from here, honey?"

Harry looked inside the cart through the small holes on the side, "I need glue, please."

"Stick or bottle?" asked Officer McFinn to his wife, who held onto the list.

"He needs both." said Mrs. McFinn.

"I've got them." said Dr. Clark holding up both types of glue.

"Well that's all we need from here, lets go and get some lunch, and then we'll go clothes shopping." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

Harry gave a slight whimper.

"Don't blame you lad, I don't like shopping for clothes either." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"Don't worry dear, Dudley can't take your clothes away." said Mrs. McFinn kindly. "He can't, can he?"

"Not with how large that brat is, no." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

They stopped at a nearby buffet restaurant for lunch. Harry looked around wonderingly and saw different stations located all around the center of the restaurant, each housing a different course of food. His mouth quickly began to water.

"Harry dear, you're drooling." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile as she wiped his mouth.

"Come on Harry." said Dr. Clark, let's get you a plate." he took Harry's small hand and led him over to where the food was and handed him a warm plate. "Let's get you some vegetables first." he said smiling as he dragged Harry away from the cakes and custard section.

"Let's see," he picked Harry up with one arm so he could see the different vegetbales there was to choose from. "Do you want, carrots, peas, celery, lettace, broccoli or spinach?" he chuckled at the disgusted face Harry gave to the last choice. "Well I know what you dont' want, so which one do you want."

"Carrots please." said Harry leaning over and pointing to the small coin shaped carrots.

"Okay then." Dr. Clark scooped up several of the carrots and placed them on his plate, taking a few sticks of celery for himself. "Now let's see what we can find at these other stations." he carried Harry over to the entree station.

The moment Harry saw it, he pointed quickly to miniture chicken pot pies. Dr. Clark picked up one of them for Harry and placed it carefully on his plate, he then put Harry down onto the floor and ladled himself a heaping amount of spaghetti.

"What a little cutie." whispered a young woman nearby. Dr. Clark looked up and saw two young college girls pointing to Harry, who was standing beside his leg, waiting obediently for him to get done. Harry looked up at the girls and shyly hid behind Dr. Clark's legs.

"Aww, reminds of you of Bambi, doesn't he? He's too cute." said the other girl.

"Such a little heartbreaker, love his big green eyes." cooed her friend as they walked away.

"You are insanely popular." said Dr. Clark looking behind him with a fond smile. Harry only blushed. "Come on, let's go back to the table, we'll get dessert later." said Dr. Clark as Harry pointed to the custard and cakes.

After they got back to their table, and Harry gobbled up his carrots, Dr. Clark looked up over Harry's head and saw people he had rather not see the rest of the day.

The Dursleys.

Dr. Clark elbowed Officer McFinn's arm slightly, when Officer McFinn looked over to see what was the matter, Dr. Clark nodded towards the door. Officer McFinn and Uncle Vernon locked eyes, Officer McFinn smirked at the fading color leaving Vernon's face and his smirk turned into a broad smile as the Durlseys turned around swiftly, dragging their overstuffed son out of the restaurant.

"Good, we can eat in piece." muttered Officer McFinn.

"Harry dear," said Mrs. McFinn laughing, "you got gravy all over your face." she wiped the gravy off his cheeks.

"Dr. Clark has spaghetti all over his." said Harry pointing.

"He's a big boy, he can make himself a mess." said Officer McFinn with a chortle as he watched Dr. Clark wipe his face quickly.

"What do we do now?" asked Dr. Clark as he put the napkin down.

"Dessert!" said Harry happily.

The people at the table laughed, as well as a few people who were watching the small group.

"Well of course, have to have dessert, but after that?" said Dr. Clark with a smile.

"We need to get some clothes for him, no more scarecrow look." said Mrs. McFinn.

"To be on the safe side, Holly, we'll need to keep the clothes at our place. Don't want the Dursley's destroying everything we got him." said Officer McFinn.

His wife's face darkened at the thought.

"I cleaned my plate, dessert now?" said Harry up to the three adults and extended his cleaned plate.

"I'll take him, I'm done too." said Officer McFinn standing up.

They both walked over to the dessert table and like what Dr. Clark did, Officer McFinn picked Harry up so he could make a choice. Without even a moment's warning. Harry gave Officer McFinn a tight hug around his neck.

Officer McFinn was startled, but only for a moment. He hugged the little boy back and whispered "What's the occassion?"

"Thank you," said Harry quietly, small tears streamed down his cheek, "for loving me."

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**I thought I'd end this chapter on a tearjerker, at least I hope it was a tearjerker...**

**Thanks for reading! And now...**

**QUESTION OF THE WEEK! **_**What was your favorite childhood storybook? For example: The Lorax by Dr. Suess. **_**You don't need to put the Author. I'd be really shocked if you name my favorite story.**


	11. Chapter 11 Tricks and Treats

**Whew! Thank goodness I got this chapter out, I learned a few very valuable lessons this week:**

**1. Farm Town is too addicting.**

**2. Never watch A Very Potter Musical when you've got typing to do.**

**3. Staying up till 2 in the morning isn't working anymore.**

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**Well, onward!**

**I know that Halloween is still a ways off, but believe it or not, I was running out of ideas! But I have a whole new set now!**

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**Last week's QUESTION OF THE WEEK! **_**What was your favorite childhood storybook?**_

**Favorite answer!**

_**Readergirl321: There's a monster at the end of the book and if you gave a moose a muffin.**_

**The Monster at the end of the book one was my favorite sesame street book! I had a hard copy of it! Still do somewhere around here...**

**But my favorite story by far is "Doctor Desoto Goes to Africa" by William Steig.**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

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A few months passed, and everyday Officer McFinn, his wife and Dr. Clark, would take Harry into their hearts and hold onto him just as tightly as they could. Sparing him as much cruelty by his Uncle Veron as much as they could. Finally Halloween came to England and the McFinn's discussed their plans.

"Are we both going Trick or Treating or is one of us staying home and cursing the inventor of the doorbell?" asked James McFinn, he then took out a small coin. "Tails I go with Harry, Heads you do." said James.

He tossed the coin into the air, and allowed it hit the floor.

"Heads." said Holly, "I win."

"Uh, how about we both go?" said James with a nervous smile.

"Big baby." said Holly smirking. "Good thing I planned on both of us going."

Then the door to the McFinn's house opened and in came both Harry and Dr. Clark, Harry looked ecstatic.

"Did you find a good costume, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn.

"Yup!" said Harry happily.

"What are you going as?" said Mrs. McFinn, giving Dr. Clark a wink. Sam nodded and smiled broadly. They had already had a plan for what they wanted Harry to go as.

Harry placed his large bag down and the floor, reached in and jammed a blue hat with a badge on his head.

"I'm gonna be a police officer!" said Harry holding up a toy gun and handcuffs.

"That's my boy." said Officer McFinn proudly, completely unaware that his wife and friend had planned it.

"What about you, Sam?" asked Holly as she looked through the rest of Harry's bag.

"We stopped at a consignment store and I got a wig and some old-fashioned clothes. Thought I'd go as David Bowie." said Dr. Clark with a smile.

"Oh, this I've got to see." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"Who's he?" said Harry with a bright smile.

"A rocker nut, he paints his face." said Officer McFinn.

"Oi! He's a great rocker nut." said Dr. Sam with a frown. "What about you two?"

"Well, I have a Fairy Queen costume." said Mrs. McFinn looking thoughtful.

"I can just go as a Police Officer." said Officer McFinn.

"Oh come one James you can't go in your uniform, I got you a costume already." said his wife.

"Huh? What are you making me go out as?" said Officer McFinn quickly.

"You afraid that it's a pink bunny costume?" said Dr. Clark with a smirk.

"Oh, it's not." said Mrs. McFinn with a giggle. "But I thought it would be easy to keep a hold of Harry during Trick or Treating, if you wore something like this." she held up a striped suit and pants, with a black eye mask.

"I'm going as a criminal?" said Officer McFinn taking a step back.

"Yes, Harry'll will be handcuffed to you, it'll look absolutely adorable." said Mrs. McFinn.

"What is with you and trying to make him look cute?" said Officer McFinn. "Have you seen his eyes? He doesn't need any help. Well, Halloween is tonight, so we'd best get everything already."

"Do you have a bucket for your candy?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Yup!" said Harry reaching into another bag and holding a pumpkin shaped bucket high up into the air.

"See if you can get some small Mars Bars." whispered Dr. Clark in Harry's ear.

"What are you doing?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Telling him what to get, I love Mars Bars." said Dr. Clark.

"C'mon Holly, don't tell me that you won't pick through his bucket." said Officer McFinn said throwing an arm around her waist.

"You can Miss Holly." said Harry with a smile.

"Thank you dear." said Mrs. McFinn kissing his forehead.

Hours later, after they had dinner, so Harry wouldn't eat all the candy in his bucket and get sick, they all got ready to go 'trick or treating'.

After Mrs. McFinn got all dressed into her flowing gown and large glittering wings, she helped Harry into his little Cop costume.

"There you go, the most handsome officer in the world." said Mrs. McFinn placing the small blue hat on his head.

"So what does that make me?" said a voice coming from the master bedroom.

They both turned and saw Officer McFinn, in a white and black striped shirt and pants, with a mask over his eyes.

"The most dashing criminal I've ever seen." said Mrs. McFinn kissing her husband. "Sam! Are you almost ready?"

"Just about, there!" said a voice behind the bathroom door. Then the door opened and out came...

"What do you think?" said the man. Harry stared at the man in wonder. He had a full head of long blonde hair and his eyes looked menancing, he had a high collared cloak, and a frilly white shirt, with high-heeled boots and tight pants.

"Woah." said Officer McFinn looking at him with wide eyes.

"I was hoping you were picking the David Bowie Jareth." said Mrs. McFinn. "I loved that movie."

"I thought David was a boy's name." said Harry.

"Huh? It is." said Dr. Clark looking down at the boy.

"Then why are you a girl?" asked Harry pointing at him.

The adults laughed loudly. "Harry honey, he's dressed as a movie character David Bowie played. Come here, I'll show you." she walked over to where they had a cabinet of videos and pulled one off the shelf. "See, that's David Bowie." she pointed to a blonde haired man holding a little glass ball. Harry looked between Dr. Clark and the movie.

"They look a lot alike don't they?" said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

After they finished gathering up everything they would need, they left the house.

"Wait a minute!" said Harry quickly.

"What's up, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn. He looked down and saw Harry click one half of the cuff's on his wrist. Harry attached the other handcuff to his own wrist and handed a small key to Mrs. McFinn.

"You're under arrest!" said Harry happily. Officer McFinn looked down and smiled at the young boy.

"Oh, please Officer, don't send me to the slammer!" said Officer McFinn pleadingly.

"Take it up with the judge!" said Harry with a laugh.

"Come on you two, we'll never hit all the houses we want to at this pace." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

They set off down the street, Harry swung the bucket back and forth happily.

The entire time, Officer McFinn and Harry would walk up to each house in the neighborhood and rang the doorbell or knocked on the door, chant the traditional saying and he'd have his pick of the bowl that was handed out to him. And Mr. McFinn would smile as people complimented there collaborating costumes.

"Hello James." said an elderly lady, "Seems you've been apprehended by a fierce lawman." she finished with a giggle.

Harry gave a giggle. He smiled broadly as he she placed a tasty toffee apple in his bucket. "There you are dear. I love your costume."

Down the street they went, going to every house they knew and smiled as each passing person and house inhabitant complimented on all four of their costumes. Dr. Clark had to run about four blocks away to get away from a few young women when they saw him and chased him screaming down the street.

"Glad to see you." said Officer McFinn as Dr. Clark slipped though the partition of two houses.

"I'm starting to rethink the whole "Rock Star" costume." said Dr. Clark. "They wanted to tear me apart!"

"That's what you get." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

"I got Mars Bars." said Harry holding his bucket up to Dr. Clark.

"Thanks, I need one of these." said Dr. Clark taking a small candy bar. "How many houses do we need to hit?" he asked. "I've got a costume party at the hospital, in a half-hour."

"Well, we've hit all the people we know." said Mrs. McFinn. "Let's stop at the Police Station, they always like it when kids come in ans show off their costumes."

"You're going to make me go in there, with a criminal costume? That's just too cruel." said Officer McFinn.

"Oh come one, you owe it to one of the sergents anyway." said Mrs. McFinn.

"How do you figure?" asked Officer McFinn.

"Didn't he come to the station in a large chicken suit?" asked Mrs. McFinn. "You wouldn't let him live it down for weeks. Time for you have the same experience."

Officer McFinn grumbled but allowed himself to walk back to their house and climbed into the car.

"Hang on, I need to unlock the handcuffs, don't want Harry leaning so far forward in the seat." said Mrs. McFinn as she reached into her flower shaped purse.

"Oh, come on, would have been funny to get pulled over." said Officer McFinn sarcastically.

"I'm going to head over to the hospital, I'm meeting Megan there." said Dr. Clark.

"How is she?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"Fine, but she wants to know where our relationship is going." said Dr. Clark.

"Haven't you only been dating for a week?" said Officer McFinn.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it when she asked me that. There's a lesson to you, Sport, don't date a girl who's too clingy." said Dr. Clark, he then hopped into his own car and drove off.

Once they had reached the police station, Officer McFinn heaved a large sigh and stepped out of the car. He looked down at the small police officer standing beside his knee.

"Alright, let's go lock me up." said Officer McFinn with a smlie.

The moment they all walked into the station, Mrs. McFinn received wolf-whistles from the miscreants that had just been apprehended that night and a few of the younger officers.

"So you switched teams, eh McFinn? " said a voice coming from a room off to the left. Officer McFinn turned quickly to reem the owner of the voice a new one, but caught himself quickly when he saw it was the Inspector Homes.

"Happy Halloween, McFinn." said Inspector Homes. "Seems you've been causing some trouble, thank you Officer, you'll get a commendation for this." said Inspector Homes smiling broadly down at Harry. He laughed loudly as he saw the young boy hide behind the man's leg and pull the skirt of Mrs. McFinn's dress up to hide his face.

"Points deducted for not standing your ground." said inspector Homes said still laughing. "Come on lad, we should introduce you to the rest of the boys." he picked Harry up and carried him over to where most of the officers were, filling out paper work and keeping a tight hold onto their quarries.

"Hey lads, take a look at this new up and comer." said Inspector Homes and beaming.

"Ooh's a fierce one he is." said one of the thugs in the corner. Soon all of the prisoners began to laugh.

"Laugh now boys, one day he'll be arresting the lot of you." said Officer McFinn walking forward.

"Nice costume, Jim." said one of the officers with a smile.

"Who's the pretty lady?" asked one of the criminals.

"My wife." said Officer McFinn shortly.

"You can do better, sweetheart." said the man with a smirk.

"Don't push my buttons." said Officer McFinn with a growl.

"Why not?" said the man.

"Sport, how many shots out of twenty did I hit the bullseye last week?" said Officer McFinn asked the little boy licking an enormous lollipop given to him by a female officer.

"Nineteen." said Harry between licks.

"Nevermind." said the man quickly.

"What did you do to get to the big house, Officer." said one of Officer McFinns' regular captures.

"Took candy from my bucket!" said Harry giggling.

"Oh! That's a capital crime that is!" said one of the other officers.

"You picking on me?" said Officer McFinn to Harry.

"Yup!" said Harry laughing.

Suddenly, Harry was picked up and hung upside down, Officer McFinn reached behind Harry's leg and began to tickle the small part behind his kneecap, Harry laughed loudly and begged to be let go.

"You gonna keep making fun of me?" said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"No!" said Harry laughing and trying to get away, but being upside down made it very hard.

"I can't hear you." said Officer McFinn still tickling him.

"NO!" shouted Harry, his eyes watering from all the laughing.

Slowly he was turned over and placed gently on the ground, he sat there laughing until he got up and hurried off to the bathroom.

"Good thing you put him down when you did." said the Inspector with a smile. "Alright, while he's in the loo. I talked to a few of the higher ups and asked the D.A if he found out anything about getting that kid away from them."

"And?" asked Mrs. McFinn eagerly. But her face fell when he looked downcast.

"Nothing, Dursley's got a great lawyer. Said we have no proof, and a load of other tosh." said the Inspector.

"Care to tell me?" said Officer McFinn hotly.

"No, you'd go over and kill him." said the Inspector with a proud smile. "But what you've got going, just like we thought, that's the best we can do."

Suddenly Harry came back to them took back his lollipop from Mrs. McFinn. Then, they saw him yawn.

"Time to take you back home." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Do I have to go back to the Dursley's" whined Harry sleepily.

"No, you're staying the night at our house, the Dursleys went off to wherever Vernon's sister lives." said Officer McFinn picking Harry up and patting his back. Harry rested his head on his shoulder and fell asleep instantly. Mrs. McFinn took his sucker and placed it in a small plastic bag and kissed the little boy's forehead.

"Happy Halloween, honey." said Mrs. McFinn.

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**Thank you for reading! Please review and answer...**

**THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK! **_**What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid? **_


	12. Chapter 12 Bonfire Night

**Okay, sorry I didn't update on time, I hit a bit of a snag (aka writers block) that and I had a loss in my family, a very unexpected and horrific loss.**

**So, yeah. I'm not feeling very full of jocularity at the moment. **

**..oh yeah. QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER...**

**Unfortunately I had two people say that they weren't allowed to go out on Halloween dressed up, that's got to really suck. I cannot imagine not being able to go out on Halloween. **

**But here is my pick:**

**Racheal Weasley****: I went as lord voldemort and get this: i met a kid dressed as harry potter! Believe it or not the stupid kid is now my mortal enemy.**

**The costume that I remember so vividly in my mine was going as Jem, from Jem in the Holograms. Had a plastic mask and everything. **

**Okay, the question of the chapter this chapter is a very serious one, and answering it would be very benifical if you like this story, even if you don't read the story all that frequently.**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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It was the morning of Bonfire Night, and Harry was making a load of baked potatoes for the Dursley's to take to the Bonfire Night celebrations that were going to be held in the middle of Littile Whinging. Harry had never been to one, as the Dursleys refused to take him anywhere. But they always made him make a large basket full of food.

Uncle Vernon always said that the food at these celebrations festivities were overpriced and under cooked. So whenever they went to Bonfire Night, they would have Harry cooked all sorts of treats for they to enjoy, while he stayed at home of course. But this time, the McFinns were taking him to go and enjoy the festivities and Harry couldn't wait.

But that meant that Harry had to get all of the cooking done before he left and he had to make a lot of food. He made plenty of toffee apples, almost two pounds of baked potatoes, popped corn, thermoses of different soups, and plenty of cookies. He wasn't just making food for the Dursleys, but also Uncle Vernon's bosses. He had asked them to come to the celebrations and he'd treat them to a sort of picnic dinner. Uncle Vernon always tried to impress his bosses with free food and entertainment. On top of all that, he was making one pie in particular for a contest that he and Mrs. McFinn had entered last minute.

At the McFinn's, Holly was busy making a large batch of baked potatoes and treacle toffee and other tasty treats for their little party. Officer McFinn came up behind her and kissed her neck as she rolled the toffee dipped apples in the chopped nuts.

"Get off." said Holly smiling as she tried to escape her husband.

"You getting all ready for tonight?" asked James with a smile.

"I'm almost done, I just need to get the treacle toffee done, finish baking my blueberry pie for the pie contest and then it'll be all set." said Holly. "Have you asked Dursley if we can have Harry over tonight?"

"He practically begged me to take him, seems he has some important people to look after tonight. So we get him for the night and all the way into tomorrow. I think Sport is going to have the time of his life tonight." said James with a smile.

"Even with the Dursley's about thirty feet away?" asked Holly.

"Well, maybe with some luck Vernon will trip and fall in the fire." said James.

Later on that afternoon, almost the entire town of Little Whinging arrived at the designated Bonfire Night site, and before the actual bonfire started, there were carnival games and contests.

Before they even entered the festival area, Mr. McFinn took Harry aside and had talk.

"Okay, Harry. I'm going to lay down a few rules, alright?" said Mr. McFinn.

"Yes sir." said Harry, giving Officer McFinn his full attention.

"Alright, Rule one: You don't go too close to the fire." said Officer McFinn.

"No going near the fire." said Harry repeating Officer McFinn.

"Rule two: you don't leave any of our sights, got it?" said Officer McFinn.

"No leaving you." said Harry.

"Rule three: You stay away from the fireworks. Unless we hand you a sparkler, you don't touch them." said Officer McFinn.

"No touching the fireworks." said Harry smartly.

"Okay, if you disobey any of the rules, we'll leave and you'll be grounded for two weeks." said Officer McFinn. "You'd still come to our house everyday, but you'll be sitting in your room everyday."

"Yes sir." said Harry.

"Okay then, lets go and have some fun, safely." said "Officer McFinn taking Harry by the hand, while Harry gripped the basket he brought from home.

Mrs. McFinn placed her pie in the blueberry part of the pie stand and smiled as Harry had to stay on tiptoe to try and put his own pie in the 'Unusual Pie' section.

"What kind of pie did you make sweetheart?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Grape pie." said Harry.

"A _grape pie_?" asked Mrs. McFinn in shock.

"Uh, huh!" said Harry with a bright smile.

"Have you made one before?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Yup, I love making it!" said Harry happily.

Then Mr. McFinn and Dr. Clark came striding up, their arms ladened with a giant teddy bear and giant dragon doll. Both of them were smiling over to the pie contest contenders.

"Look what we won you guys." said Dr. Clark handing the large dragon down to the small boy.

"These games were just as easy as those carnival games we took Sport to." said Officer McFinn with a large smile.

"Yet I don't see anyone else with such large stuffed animals." said Mrs. McFinn giving her husband a kiss and giving the stuffed bear a squeeze. "Well, what do you want to do, while they judge the pies?"

"Well, there's a bouncy castle over there, Sport can go and let loose some energy while we get the picnic basket and blanket all set up." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"Can't I help you set up the picnic?" asked Harry with a small whimper.

"Why don't you want to go over there and play?" asked Dr. Clark.

Harry pointed and there were Dudley and his little group of friends, shoving the other children around in the inflatable bouncy castle.

"Ah, I gotcha. I'll go...oh, never mind, they're getting kicked out right now." said Officer McFinn.

"Dear lord, don't tell me that that's your Aunt." said Mrs. McFinn said to Harry. All the way over from where they were, they could hear her shriek at the worker that had removed the children from the playhouse.

"Ooh, she just got a red card." said Dr. Clark.

"What's a red card?" asked Harry, hanging onto Officer McFinns' hand.

"It's the new way to warn people and try and fix possible problems. You get a red card when you've been warned, then your name is taken down and passed around to the other officials so that, if you get in trouble again, you're done, and if it's a serious charge to get you kicked out, you're banned for two years." said Officer McFinn.

"This is the try out year." said Dr. Clark. "So far, its working just fine."

"She better reign in that kid." said Officer McFinn. "Or they won't be staying here long."

About an hour later, everyone (or at the very least the people who were interested) came over to the pie contest stand and awaited the results. Mrs. McFinn's blueberry pie came in first place in the Berry Pie category and to Harry's immense delight, his pie won the "Unusual Pie" category. Neither one of them cared that a Butter Pecan Pumpkin Pie won the Best of Show.

Harry took the judges completely off guard by how young he was.

"You have got to be kidding me, how can someone so young bake that?" asked one of the judges whispering to her friend.

"Must've had some help from his mother." said her friend.

Officer McFinn took the remaining pieces of both of their pies and took them back to the picnic blanket.

"I love blueberry pie." said Dr. Clark helping himself to a large slice.

"I want to try this grape pie." said Mrs. McFinn taking a thin slice.

Pretty soon there wasn't a pie to be had in their basket. But there was an exchange of reciepes, Mrs. McFinn wanted Harry's reciepe for grape pie and he wanted her blueberry pie reciepe.

After a while, Harry laid down to take a nap under a cool, shady willow tree and Mrs. McFinn brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Good thing he's taking a nap, that way he'll stay up and enjoy the bonfire." said Officer McFinn smiling down at the boy.

"Lift his head just abit, put my coat underneath his head." said Dr. Clark.

Harry had pleasent dreams about all about the wonderful times he and the McFinns were going to have and the day that he was finally going to be able to live at the McFinn's house, for good.

Suddenly he was shaken awake by Dr. Clark. "Time to get up kiddo. They're going to start the bonfires really soon."

Harry jerked awake and sat up quickly. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stretched quickly. He saw the workers finish the final touches of the bonfire cone and get the fireworks display all set.

"Hey, James!" shouted one of the men over by the fireworks stand. "Could you give us a hand? We need another person here to help keep the fire under control. Frank had to leave, wife's having a baby."

"Hope it's not a girl, you know he'd name her 'Ember'." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

"Wouldnt' put it past him, the pun nutter." said one of the men with a laugh. "You're nephew want to help out too? Or did you and Holly finally adopt?"

"He'd love to, and to answer the nephew part, it's part of a son's without father progam. So, he's like my son." said James with a laugh. "Harry, come here, you can help out too."

Harry hurried over to where the men were and listened carefully to their instructions.

"Alright lad, we just need you to give us some planks when we call for them, you can find a stack of them in the back of that cart. You do that, we'll give you a few pounds of spending money, how about that?"

"You don't need to sir! I wanna help!" said Harry beaming brightly.

"James, you make sure he doesn't hurt himself, Remember what we talked about Harry." said Mrs. McFinn shaking her finger gently.

"Yes ma'am, I'll be careful." said Harry holding his hand up and crossing his heart.

So, Harry waited beside the cart and hurried a plank or two over to the men when they called for it and ran to grab them some refreshments from the surrounding stands. It was easy work and every so often when he would go and get them something to eat or drink, they would allow him to keep whatever change was left.

Pretty soon, the bonfire was all ready to light and the fireworks were in the order that looked the best. Harry stood beside Mr. and Mrs. McFinn and watched as they lit the bonfire.

"Here you go, kiddo. You get the first sparkler for helping us." said one of the men holding out a metal rod that was thick at one end. Harry looked up to Officer McFinn quickly to make sure it was alright, then he took ahold of it, and waited for the man to light it with the burning brand in his hand.

"Oi, hand that over!" said a voice coming from behind him, Harry knew who's voice that belonged too, and it didn't spell good news for him. Out of nowhere Harry was shoved forward, (though he should have expected his cousin to do something,) a small part of his upper arm struck the brand lightly, but close enough to catch his shoulder on fire.

"Ow!" said Harry as he landed hard on the ground.

"Harry!" shouted Dr. Clark, Mrs. McFinn and Officer McFinn. Mrs. McFinn dumped her iced tea on Harry's shoulder to put out the small fire that had latched onto his shirt. Without missing a beat, Dr. Clark, Mrs. McFinn and Officer McFinn rushed Harry to the car and whisked him off to the Hospital.

They whisked him into the Emergency Room, where Dr. Clark ordered about the staff and stayed with Harry the entire time. What Harry found quite funny about the entire thing was that Mr. and Mrs. McFinn and Dr. Clark were running around in a blind panic while Harry didn't feel much pain anymore. In fact, all that Harry could tell needed to be done was that his upper arm needed to be wrapped up.

Meanwhile, Dudley was being told off by almost every adult within screaming distance. The only way that the Dursley's managed to get away with not getting kicked out, was that Aunt Petunia said was an accident. But she and her son Dudley had to leave early after she tried saying that Dudley wouldn't hurt a fly.

"You're kidding! We just saw your son knock someone clean out of the bouncy castle not more than an hour ago!" said of the security personnel. Uncle Vernon told Petunia to just take Dudley to the kiddy films that were being shown in the next park that way that he could stay with his superiors and keep making a good impression. But after seeing his son act that way, they decided to leave.

"We'll be taking off, Vernon. See you at the office." said one of the managers.

Uncle Vernon wore a strained smile on his face, but then it turned into a scowl.

"If that worthless little snot ruined my chances at a raise, I'll make him wish he was _never born_." snarled Uncle Vernon.

* * *

**Okay! I've had a lot of touching endings but I think it was time for a bit of a worrying ending. **

**Please Review! Normally I have a fun question to answer here, but this week it's serious, both my mood and the question and I would really appreciate the feedback.**

**Now normally I update once a week on Wednesdays, all three stories. But to be honest, it's getting to be a bit overwhelming and I've had some people comment on how short the chapters are. I'm thinking about doing the following...**

**Updating Exploring Harry Potter's Life on livejournal every week on **_**Fridays. **_**And alternate updating stories on Fanfiction, also on **_**Fridays**_**. **

**There is a pro and con of what I have planned on doing. **

**Con: You have to wait a bit longer for the newest updates for both stories here on Fanfiction.**

**Pro: The chapters will be quite a bit longer. And I can finally get some days off from typing, because it's constantly type type type. I'd like to go out and do stuff;D**

**But rest assured, I will NOT be discontinuing these stories. not after all the work I've put into them.**


	13. Chapter 13 Yuletide Greetings

**First off, I would like to thank everyone that sent my their sympathies about the loss in my family. It was greatly appreciated. And also said that it was alright for me to only update two stories a week, alternating the two on this site, every other week. It has made my life a lot easier. **

**So next week, if you have favorited it or not, next week I will be uploading Forging a King. The Crossover of Harry Potter into Lord of the Rings.**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

Uncle Vernon thought darkly, he wanted to punish Harry for losing his promotion, but his normal means were unavailable to him at this point. No thanks to that damned police officer. He could faintly remember the last time he tried to punish Harry.

"Get in here boy! I've got a bone to pick with you!" growled Vernon threateningly.

"What's wrong Uncle Vernon?" said Harry in a slight whimper.

"You didn't make enough biscuits for tea! Dudley's friends came over and we ran out! Had to go to the market, you lazy, good for nothing...!" snalred Vernon Dursley as he raised his fist.

"Don't...even...think...about...it..." said a voice coming from the left of the door.

Vernon turned quickly around and saw Officer McFinn leaning against the house and scowling at the man holding the small boy.

"What do you want?" spat Vernon.

"You to let go of him, to start with." said Officer McFinn darkly. "If I see even a hint of a bruise or scrape on him, I'll have you in the emergency room so fast it will make your head spin."

Vernon turned pale and then red again. He then thrusted Harry into the police officer's thigh. "Take him out of my sight! I want him back tomorrow night!" Then he slammed the door.

What was he going to do to punish that boy? Standing in a corner never works, doesn't drive the message home. But with that blasted cop coming around, he couldn't punish the boy. He hated that officer, he tried everything he could possibly think of to get that Officer out of his family's life. and put it back to the ideal life he had. What he needed was an idea. Too bad Marge wasn't here, she always had clever ideas.

_Marge_.

There was his idea! Marge hated the boy, but loved to taunt and thrash him about! That meddlesome officer wouldn't be able to say a thing! Especially if Harry got on the wrong side of one of Marge's bulldogs. It wouldn't he him doing it! And Marge's worst weapon was her mouth.

He could tell that that damned officer wanted Harry at his place for Christmas, but that wouldn't fly with Marge, and Harry wouldn't dare test her patience. So he'd stay at Privet Drive, and not at McFinns.

He couldn't wait to see the boy's face when he'd tell him. But first, he'd have to call Marge and invite her to Privet Drive for the Holidays.

It was two weeks after Bonfire Night when Mrs. McFinn took Harry, who had been picked up by her husband, out for a bit of Christmas shopping.

"Auntie Marge is comin' for Christmas, Uncle Vernon said that I can't come to your house." said Harry sadly looking down as Mrs. McFinn drove them to the mall for shopping.

Mrs. McFinn smiled slightly. "That's alright Honey, we can have Christmas a week or two later later. Today you can help me pick out something nice for Dr. Clark and James."

"Okay!" said Harry happily.

They went pulled into the parking lot and Mrs. McFinn took a tight hold on Harry's hand and led him towards the entrance to the mall.

"Well, lets check my list and we'll see what we can find." said Mrs. McFinn.

"What do they want for Christmas?" asked Harry, clutching his little piggy bank that Mrs. McFinn had given him and he was storing all of his spending money in it. Every week, the McFinn's would give him a few pounds a week for an allowance and he still had the money he earned from Bonfire Night.

"Well, James loves a good mystery or adventure novel, though he needs a new shirt. Dr. Clark is a little harder, I'm not too sure what he'd like." said Mrs. McFinn.

Harry carried his full piggy bank around with him in the mall and looked at all the brightly colored and festive looking shops in the large mall. He had only been here with the McFinn's or Dr. Clark, never with the Dursleys. He had three people to buy for, Mr. McFinn, Mrs. McFinn and Dr. Clark. He didn't want to give the Dursleys anything for Christmas, he knew of three other people that deserved Christmas presents other than the Dursleys.

Mrs. McFinn took Harry into a bookstore so she could find a few of her girlfriends a few romantic novels. Harry looked over and saw a large display of books near the counter. He saw a lady with a name tag organize the display of book and he gently tugged on the lady's apron.

"Excuse me ma'am." said Harry meekly.

She turned around and smiled down at the small boy. "What can I do for you dearie?"

"What kind of books are they?" asked Harry pointing to the display.

"Oh these are books on history. What kind of book are you looking for?" asked the worker kindly.

"A mystery book." said Harry with a smile.

"Alright then honey, lets go find you a mystery book." said the woman kindly. She went past the Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, and the Inspector Linley. And went down to the small children's books.

"Here you go, dear, this is a very good mystery story for you." said the lady with a smile.

"Oh, thank you ma'am." said Harry politely, "But I'm shopping for someone special! He loves Sherly Homes."

"Oh, is he an adult?" said the woman with a smile.

"Yes ma'am! He likes Sherly Homes, Pooh Are Oh, and Miss Maple." said Harry happily.

"Well, lets see what we can find." said the lady taking Harry over to the book shelves they've already past. "Here you are honey, all kinds of books. Do you want me to pick one out for you?"

Harry looked at the shelf quickly and picked one up that seemed to have caught his eye.

_The Ultimate Detective's Book_.

"This one looks great!" said Harry holding the extremely large book.

"Okay sweetheart, do we need to wait for your Mummy?" said the clerk.

"No thank you ma'am, I have money." said Harry holding up his piggy bank.

Soon he was all rung up and he was holding his book by the registers waiting for Mrs. McFinn to get done with her shopping. It was only a few minutes later that she came up.

"Harry, did you find something, sweetie? Put it up here and I'll get it." said Mrs. McFinn with a broad smile.

"It's all paid for." said the clerk with a smile. "He had more than enough in his piggy bank."

"Oh! Alright then." said Mrs. McFinn as she handed the lady a few pounds with a smile.

As they walked onto another store, Mrs. McFinn looked down to Harry and took the heavy book off of his hands. "What did you get?"

"A mystery book for Officer McFinn." said Harry. "Now I just need to get you and Dr. Clark a Christmas present."

"You dont' need to get us presents, dear." said Mrs. McFinn.

"But I wanna." said Harry. "Now for Dr. Clark and you." he thought hard of what to give them.

Mrs. McFinn smiled.

Mrs. McFinn found a very nice shirt and a movie that her husband had wanted to see, and for Dr. Clark, she found a few tapes of Last of the Summer Wine that he didn't have yet. Harry couldn't find anything that was pretty enough for Mrs. McFinn's Christmas present, or really good for Dr. Clark, he wanted to get them both something really good.

A few days later, Officer McFinn took Harry out to do his Christmas shopping.

"Want to help me get something for Holly and Sam, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn.

"Sure!" said Harry. "Where are we going to go shopping at?"

"Well, let's go and get Holly's present first." said Officer MCFinn.

"Good, I need to get a present for Miss Holly too!" said Harry happily.

"How about this, Sport, you go in it with me? We can both give it to her." said Officer McFinn.

"What are you giving her?" asked Harry.

"You'll see." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

They stopped at a very nice jewelry store, and walked in. Officeer McFinn picked up Harry and placed him gently on his hip.

"Ah! Officer McFinn, how are you doing?" said the man behind the counter.

"I'm fine, you?" said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"Fine, fine. Are you here to inspect your order?" said the man.

"That I am. Also, I found those pictures to go in it." said Officer McFinn taking out a small envelope.

"Ah! Good, lets see, here it is." The man reached behind the counter and pulled out a delicate gold heart, hanging on a even more delicate gold chain.

"What do you think, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn with a smile to the young boy.

"It's so pretty." said Harry. "But what do you need the pictures for?"

"This necklace is a locket little one." said the jeweler.

"A picture of you and me are going inside, and another picture of her and me, the one from our wedding day." said Officer McFinn.

Harry stared at beautiful gold locket.

"So, do you want to come in with me on this?" said Officer McFinn. Harry nodded furiously.

It was a bit later that they left the sparkling, and glittering wonder of the jewelry. Officer McFinn then drove to a Sports equipment store.

"What are we getting here?" asked Harry.

"Well, Sam is a huge West Ham fan, so I thought that he would like a jersey." said Officer McFinn, looking at the different shirts.

Harry looked around and saw what he could give Dr. Clark, and him being a football fan it would be perfect. Officer McFinn turned around to face Harry and saw that he was holding a large football.

"What are you going to do with that, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn.

"I'm getting it for Dr. Clark's Christmas present." said Harry.

"Oh, okay. You got money on you?" asked Officer McFinn.

"Yup!" said Harry holding up his piggy bank. It wasn't as full as it was, but he still had enough to complete his Christmas shopping.

After they paid for their two things, Officer McFinn took Harry to a burger joint for lunch.

"Am I going to go shopping with Dr. Clark too?" asked Harry.

"No, he's got a lot of stuff he's got to do till we have our Christmas get-together. He's going to do his own shopping when he can find the time. " said Officer McFinn. "Besides, you're going to be way too busy too."

"How come?" asked Harry.

"You're going to be helping Holly with the Christmas baking and stuff." said Offier McFinn with a bright smile. "I'm going to be the Grocery Gofer."

Harry happily gobbled down his burger and smiled at Officer McFinn. "I can't wait till Christmas."

"Me either." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

Mrs. McFinn and Harry busied themselves almost everyday, making Christmas cookies and Christmas cakes. Not just for their little gathering, but with Mrs. McFinn having the best At-Home Bakery, she had a ton of orders that needed to be filled, and each one a little stranger than the other.

"I need a cake in the shape of Santa and his sleigh." said one lady.

"I need about twelve dozen cookies that are shaped like snowflakes, and I don't want a single one to match any of the others." said a middle aged woman.

"I need dinner rolls in the shape of Christmas stockings." said a man reading off a list of things his wife had sent with him. There were so many different treats and breads that people wanted her to make for them, but like a professional, she came right through it alright. And with Harry's help, she finished even faster than what she would have done it.

However, the good times came to an abrupt halt, when Aunt Marge came to stay for Christmas. Harry was not allowed to go to the McFinns or even speak of them.

"Well, you're still here, are you?" she asked with a slightly disgusted tone.

"Yes, Aunt Marge." said Harry sadly.

"Hmph, should be grateful. I doubt anyone would want you." said Aunt Marge with a sneer.

Harry wanted to tell her all about the McFinns but Uncle Vernon's glare silenced him completely.

Harry spent the next few days in utter misery. Harry had to work very hard to make all the food ready for Christmas Dinner. If Aunt Marge would come into the kitchen, Aunt Petunia would shove Harry out of the way so it would look like she was the one cooking. Aunt Marge would then come in and taste test everything and added her own spices to the pots and pans. Four times Harry had to toss it all out because it was either over-seasoned, or she had used the wrong thing competely.

When Christmas morning came, Harry was forced to watch as Dudley opened a large mountain of presents while Harry recieved nothing at all. But there was a small glimmer of hope, in a few days, he would be able to go to the McFinns and enjoy a proper Christmas for the first time.

But Aunt Marge didn't make those days pass by any easier. Dudley would want to play one of his board games, but it required a certain amount of people and Harry would grudgingly be allowed to play. But when Harry would prepare to land on a space that would win him money or points from Dudley, she'd whack him under the table with her cane and he'd skip over that space.

Harry couldn't wait for Aunt Marge to leave.

Finally the day came that Aunt Marge had to leave and the moment she had left in Uncle Vernon's car and after Harry made them a hurried lunch of soup and sandwiches and a tasty dinner for them to reheat later, he hurried over to the McFinns, who lived about six streets away.

He didn't even bother knocking, knowing he was welcomed at their house at any time.

"I'm here!" said Harry as he took off his small coat and snow covered boots.

"Hello, dear! Merry Christmas!" said Mrs. McFinn as she swooped down over to him and kissed his cheek.

"Merry Christmas kiddo!" said Dr. Clark with broad smile.

Harry looked around the house excitedly and saw the beautiful fir tree in the corner of living room. The tree was covered with soft twinkling lights and colorful baubles with glass icicles clinking softly.

"Alright then, James got called into work unexpectantly, so he'll be a little bit late in getting here, but we can start off without him for a while." said Mrs. McFinn, sending a sly wink over to Dr. Clark who winked back.

"Were going save opening the presents later, so do you want to help me decorate the gingerbread house I put together this morning?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

Harry, and Mrs. McFinn decorated the Gingerbread house with different colored icings, and candy while Dr. Clark wrapped his final gift, making sure Harry didn't see it. He was complete rubbish at wrapping, and had to motion Holly over to him to wrap the parcel for him.

Once they were done decorating the gingerbread house, Dr. Clark took Harry outside into the yard to build a snowman and have a snowball fight.

"No fair standing in front of the window!" Mrs. McFinn heard Dr. Clark shout happily.

_Little scamp_. thought Mrs. McFinn happily as she put the finishing touches on the turkey and was prepared to put it in the oven when she saw her husband trying to come quietly in through the back door.

She opened the door quickly and took the large red bag off his hands.

"The suit's inside, the bag, I'll go hide in our room while you guys have lunch, then I'll go by the fireplace and call you in." said fficer McFinn.

"He's going to be just so delighted!" said Mrs. McFinn happily. After James was safely tucked away into their bedroom and worked at getting dressed, Holly stuck her head out of the door.

"Lunch time, guys." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

While they enjoyed their lunch, Mrs. McFinn and Dr. Clark kept Harry's eyes on them so Officer Mcfinn could sneak past them and go into the living room.

Officer McFinn took a bit of soot and ash and slapped it on his Father Christmas suit. Then he straightened out his false beard and hat, then gave a jolly laugh.

"HO HO HO!" he said loudly, he smiled when he heard a chair just about fall over and get pushed back hard. Suddenly he saw Harry come running into the living room and laughed as he saw the boy's jaw open.

"What are you doing here, sir?" asked Harry, stammering slightly. "Christmas was a few weeks ago."

"Yes, but Holly here sent word to me that you were going to be here a bit later, and seeing as you've been extremely good for so long, I thought I'd come here and give you your present in person." said Officer McFinn, dressed in his Father Christmas outfit.

Harry smiled widely and began to fidget excitedly.

"I got your letter, but that wish is a bit out of my reach, but I can give you something that might be something you'll like." said the man reaching deep into his bag and taking out a thin parcel.

Harry stammered a thank you and took the package. He opened it slowly and inside he saw a plaque, painted blue with gold stars on the boarder.

_Harry's Room_.

Harry stared at the plaque, not believing what he was seeing, tears fell down his little nose and onto the wood.

"That room is now offically yours, do you want to go put the plaque on your door right now?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Come on, kiddo, let's get that taken care of." said Dr. Clark.

"Thank you, sir...huh?" Harry looked up, but Father Christmas was gone.

"He could only stay a moment sweetie, why don't you go and put the plaque up. Then we'll wait for James, and when he gets here, we'll open the rest of the presents." said Mrs. McFinn.

As they headed down the hall to Harry's room, she went into the bedroom and saw her husband slipping into casual clothes.

"What did he saw about it?" asked Officer McFinn as he zipped up his jacket.

"He cried, it was so beautiful." said Holly, her eyes bright with tears.

"That was a great idea Sam had." said Officer McFinn taking off the beard.

"How did you know what he wanted to Christmas?" asked Holly.

"I took him to see Father Christmas a week ago and I overheard what he said. He wanted to come and live with us forever. I was sort of hoping he wanted a toy truck, nope, he asks for the one thing I can't really give him." said James he said sadly.

"Well, making that his room offically was a huge step to him." said Holly. "Hopefully we will someday make it permanent."

"I hope so too, I'll sneak out the window, and drive up." said James opening the window and preparing to step out.

"Okay, I'll go check on the boys." said Holly.

A few minutes later, Officer McFinn came back inside the house.

"I'm home!" said Officer McFinn loudly. He picked up Harry as he came running up to him. "Hey there, Sport! Merry Christmas to you, you enjoying yourself?"

"You missed it! Father Christmas came and gave me a sign!" said Harry.

"A sign?" asked Officer McFinn with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, it said 'Harry's Room' its blue and it's got stars!" said Harry happily.

"Where are you going to put the sign?" asked Officer McFinn innocently.

"On...on my door...to my room..." said Harry uncertainly.

"Oh, so Santa made that your room now? Well, can't argue with Santa, can we?" said Officer McFinn smiling broadly. That caused Harry to smile back. "Shall we open the rest of the presents? "

"Yes, please!" said Harry excitedly. He carried Harry over to the sofa and placed him gently on his lap as he sat down. Mrs. McFinn kneeled down by the numerous presents.

"_To Dr. Clark From Harry." _said Mrs. McFinn. She handed a messily wrapped sphere.

"I'm not a good wrapper." said Harry sheepishly.

"Neither am I." said Officer McFinn and Dr. Clark together.

Dr. Clark unwrapped his present and found it to be the football that Harry had bought.

"Awesome! You and I can go out and kick it about when it becomes warmer outside!" said Dr. Clark tossing the ball up. Harry smiled broadly.

"Next present, _To James From Holly_." said Mrs. McFinn handing the package up to her husband.

"Ooh! What did you get me?" asked Officer McFinn excitedly. He unwrapped it to find a large shirt box. "Awesome! I got a box!"

"You silly fool." said Mrs. McFinn rolling her eyes, but she had a smile on her lips.

Officer McFinn took the the lid off the box and inside he found a navy blue sweater and a movie. "Can't wait to watch this one." he said putting the movie to the side. "This will keep me warm in the morning when I go to start the car in the morning." said Officer McFinn holding up the sweater. "What do you think, Sport?"

Harry felt it, "It's nice and warm." said Harry.

"Well than, lets see what it looks like on you? Hmm looks good!" said Offcier McFinn throwing the sweater over the small boy.

Dr. Clark and Mrs. McFinn laughed loudly, as Harry lifted his arms and saw that the sleeves hung over his hands.

"_To Harry From Dr. Clark._"Mrs. McFinn, she handed a brightly colored gift to Harry.

Harry looked at his package and opened it slowly. Inside he saw, a remote controlled airplane.

"That's an outside toy, no playing with it in here." said Dr. Clark with a smile.

"Does it really fly?" asked Harry quietly his excitement building.

"Yes it does." said Dr. Clark with a smile. "Like I said, it's an outside toy."

"Thank you!" said Harry, leaning over and hugging the man tightly.

"_To Holly From Sam_." said Mrs. McFinn reading the tag and then began to open her present. Inside was a pair of romantic movies.

"I'm not used to buying for girls, the lady at the video store said that those were the best chick-flicks." said Dr. Clark turning pink.

"Oh, goody, more chick-flicks." groaned Officer McFinn groaning good-naturedly.

"You hush." said Mrs. McFinn with a smirk. "_To James From Sam._"

"I don't think I want to know." said Officer McFinn with a smile. He opened his parcel and found a brand new tennis raquet.

"You blamed me beating you on a bad raquet, so, now you don't have a single thing to blame the game on." said Dr. Clark with a laugh.

"All the easier to beat you then." said Officer McFinn with a sneer.

"Play nice boys." said Mrs. McFinn with a giggle. "_To Harry From James._" she handed the large box to Harry. Harry quickly opened the package and inside he saw '_Scientists First Chemistry Set'_"

"You play with that out here, on some newspaper." said Officer McFinn.

"Are you sure he's old enough for that?" asked Mrs. McFinn worriedly.

"It was either that or getting him a dart gun." said Officer McFinn. "Besides, this thing's fun and educational."

"_To Sam From James and Holly." _said Mrs. McFinn with a smirk.

"I don't think I want to know what this is either." he said with laugh. He opened it to find...

"_Tennis for Amateurs_" said Dr. Clark reading one of the video cassete cases. "You're going to get it."

"Do I need to seperate you two?" asked Mrs. McFinn, she picked up another package. "_To James From Harry." _

"What did you get me, Sport?" asked Officer McFinn he took the large package. "Holy cats, this thing is heavy!" He unwrapped it and found the book Harry had bought. "Oh! Sport! I love you! I've been trying to find this book for awhile! How did you know I wanted it?"

"I didn't. It just had Sherly Homes, Pooh Are O, and Miss Maple in it." said Harry.

Officer McFinn laughed loudly, "Those are my favorites. I love Sherly Homes and the Hound of Baskervilles."

He was silenced by his wife, she sent a crooked smile. "Quit teasing him. Next one is, _To Harry from Mrs. McFinn." _

Harry took the package happily and unwrapped it. Inside was a lovely hand-knitted sweater and a soft fluffy blanket.

"Thank you Mrs. McFinn!" said Harry snuggling into his blanket.

"You're welcome sweetheart." said Mrs. McFinn and then she took out the last present. "_To Holly, From Harry and James_. Oh dear." said Mrs. McFinn as she opened her last present. She lifted the lid of the small box and gasped loudly.

"It's _beautiful_!" she said happily.

"Open it!" said Harry excitedly. She opened it and saw the two pictures inside. Tears formed in her eyes. "I'm never taking it off." she said as she placed it around her neck. "I think that's all the presents then."

"What about that large pile behind the tree?" asked Dr. Clark leaning over to put his stuff on the floor.

"What pile?" asked Holly.

"This pile." said Officer McFinn seeing them as well, he kneeled behind the tree and pulled out package after package. "They all say..."

"Say what?" asked Dr. Clark.

"_To Harry, From Santa._" said Officer McFinn looking at Harry slowly.

Harry hurried over and looked at all the packages, it was as if it were Dudley's birthday or Dudley's Christmas present pile, only it has _his name _on them.

Harry quickly unwrapped all the presents and found he was up to his ears in a different amount of toys and nice outfits. Mrs. McFinn, Officer McFinn and Dr. Clark each sat in silence and thought deeply, each sharing the same idea.

"Must have been Holly/James/Sam." they all thought.

Down the street a ways, a stout man walked down the way with a smile on his face, leading another man.

"What was the point on giving that kid all that stuff, Doc?" said the man.

"Sort of a reward for getting back on his feet." said the stout man with a smile. "Thought if he had been up and going by this time, he deserved a bit of a treat."

"Why can't you be that nice to us?" said the man pouting sligtly.

"You're all big boys and girls now, you don't need toys." said the stout man with a chuckle.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! Please review and answer...**

**THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK!**

_**What was your favorite Holiday memory?**_

**_See you Friday after next!_**


	14. Chapter 14: Forgotten Fears

**Okay! Welcome back to another chapter, It's a good thing that I'm only working on two chapters a week because this one gave me so much trouble! I had writers block for almost four days!**

**Here is the Answer to the Question of the Week: **_**What was your favorite Holiday memory?**_

**blackwolfgirl88**** :When I was little i came down stairs and found a giant stuffed lands bear bigger than me sitting in my grandfathers chair with my name on it**

**Aww! That was so cute! Never had a stuffed animal that size.**

**Alright, now I'm warning you this chapter is a bit...well it fits the category a bit. Now I'd like you to to remember that I had writers block and this was the only thing I could think of. So, don't knock it, you could have waited another few days...or week...**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

A few days after the holidays had ended, and Officer McFinn was back on the job going about the town of Little Whinging and protecting the citizens from those who wish to destroy their peace of mind. He was just finishing getting suited up, when his partner came into the locker room.

"Hey James, all set for briefing?" asked the young officer.

"I've been doing briefings before you even had your first pimple." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

"Gee and you don't look a day over ninety." said the younger officer.

"You say that to man with a loaded weapon? You're either very brave, or very stupid." said Officer McFinn.

He followed his young partner out of the locker room and into the conference room. They took a seat in the front of the room and took out a pad of paper.

"Alright men, lets see, on the top of the agenda, we got that child molester still out there, you'll be given a picture of him before you guys head out. Be on the look for him. The kid's family wants him off the streets, it's better to have him in custody than to have the detective's working on his murder case. "

"I'd turn a blind eye." muttered his young partner. "Sadistic..."

"Wouldn't we all and I agree, but that's not the way we do things." said the lieutenant sternly. "I'm not letting my kids out to play alone until we get this sick freak. On another note, McFinn just got a personal invitation to the Queen's Garden Party in May."

The men in the conference room clapped and cheered.

"Goodie." said Officer McFinn rolling eyes.

"Come on! It's an honor." said one of the officers sitting behind him.

"I know it is, I've been these things several times. I gotta wear suit and act outside the norm." said Officer McFinn.

"Why go then?" asked the lieutenant.

"Two reasons, one: the invitation is from the Queen and it's not worth my life to tell her no, two: My wife used to come from that sort of social standard, it's nice to give her something she used to enjoy. Can't do it normally on a police officer's salary." said Officer McFinn. "She deserves more than what I can give her."

"Thank goodness I'm single." said his partner.

"You say that now." said Officer McFinn with a laugh. But his laughter died down when he saw the face on the flier.

The face was a disgusting and twisted. His nose was squashed and broken, his dark eyebrows were thick and bristly. He had a scar that cut jaggedly down his cheek and almost down his neck.

His mind was instantly taken to Harry lying on the hospital, he couldn't bring himself to think of Harry being hurt like that. His whole body gave a tremendous shiver, he'd have to stop it before it could happen.

All day long, he couldn't help but think about it. Even his lunch break was plagued with the thoughts about Harry and some unfamiliar menace. Hopefully they'll catch the guy soon.

Soon after lunch, they recieved a call about someone seeing the molester down by the riverside.

"Let's go." said Officer McFinn turning the sirens on and turning sharply on the corner. They drove as fast as they could down to the river. They didn't stop until they saw a man walking almost dragging a small girl down the warf. Officer McFinn turned off his siren and stopped the car right behind them. Without looking at the man's face, he could tell that it was him.

"Get on the ground! Right now!" said the veteran officer loudly.

The man turned his face over to where the men were shouting, and they got all the confirmation they needed. The little girl was screaming and trying to get away from the man. He looked down at the girl and brought a gun from out of his back pocket.

"You come near..." shouted the man. But that was as far as he got, Officer McFinn pulled the trigger on his own gun and it's bullet sped off into the handle of the gun in the man's hand. The flew out of the man's hand and landed behind him in the water.

"You move one more muscle and I'll put a bullet through your head. Now let the girl go and get down on the ground." said Officer McFinn sternly.

The man looked at him fearfully, finding someone who he couldn't order about, released his hold on the crying child and laid flat on his back. The little girl ran to the younger officer as other police cars came screaming up to them.

Back at the station, Officer McFinn was being clapped on the back so much that he was certain that he would develope a sort of burn.

"Way to go!"

"You'll be in for another commendation!"

There wasn't an officer or detective in the precinct that didn't show him praise. But Officer McFinn's thoughts only lay with Harry, and the feeling that he might not know about such bad people. Sure he knew about abusive people, but this kind of abuse, he wasn't too sure if he had any idea of it. He sort of hoped not, but that would mean...he would have to talk to him about it.

Earlier that day, Harry went to school and sat down in his desk, for the first time that he could remember that school year, no one made fun of his ratty clothes. He was wearing one of his new pair of pants and the soft sweater that he had gotten for Christmas.

It was show and tell time and he had brought one of his toy soilders in to show the rest of the class.

"It's an old fashioned toy, you wind it up in the back with the metal key, then it walks around." said Harry, he turned the key and placed the small toy on his desk. The toy solider walked slowly about and made a funny clicking noise.

"And you got this for Christmas?" said Piers in a bored voice. "Didn't you get anything newer?"

"This is new to me, and that's good enough." said Harry holding the toy soldier. "I didn't want to bring my plane or chemistry set."

"Why not?" asked one of the girls.

Harry looked at Dudley quick. "Umm, didn't want to lose it."

Later in the gym, the students played for their normal play period and Harry stayed in the corner and played with his soldier. Then Dudley came over.

"I want that!" said Dudley yanking the toy out of Harry's hands.

"That's mine!" said Harry.

"Not anymore." said Dudley pulling the legs off the soldier. Then he tugged at Harrys sweater, "Gimmie!"

Suddenly a loud rip could be heard and Harry looked down and saw the sleeve almost completely ripped off. Harry took the shattered and torn bits of his Christmas presents and ran back to his classroom.

Later on that day, Harry came to the McFinn's after school just like normal. His cheeks were burned with tears when he finally got there. He walked in the door and put his frayed bookbag down on the table, sat down and covered his head and cried.

"Sweetheart, is that you?" said Mrs. McFinn coming out of the kitchen drying her hands on her apron. "Would you like a snack?" When she saw him crying she hurried over to him. "Honey! What's wrong?"

Harry lifted his head and wiped his reddened-eyes and blew his nose on the tissue she handed him. "Y-y-you re-remember that I took some pre-presents home?" said Harry sobbing still. "A-After Christmas?"

"Yes, what happened?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"Dudley took my toys and broke them, just took them and stepped on them." said Harry wiping his eyes with his knuckles. "And he ripped the sweater you gave me." He raised his arms and showed Mrs. McFinn the tears and the rips. "Why doesn't he let me have nice things?"

"I don't know Sweetie. But as for the toys, well...we'll just keep your things here from now on. And the sweater? I can always make you a new one." she kissed the top of his head. "Now why don't you go, wash your face and go lie down for a bit? You must be very tired."

"I'm not tired." said Harry sniffling. "I'm feeling better."

"Alright then, you go wash your face and then you can help me with some cakes I need to make for tomorrow." said Mrs. McFinn. "It's sort of a winter garden party."

Harry smiled and hurried into the bathroom. While he was in there, she glared in the direction of the Dursley's house. _One of these days, I'm going to get you and I'll do it for him._ When he came back out, Mrs. McFinn dropped her scowl and led him into the kitchen.

Over the next hour, they decorated several different cakes and put the finishing touches on an assortment of candies. They didn't stop until Officer McFinn came home.

"I'm home! Come on Harry, lets get you back to the Dursleys." said Officer McFinn dropping a load of laundry down on the floor.

"Coming!" said Harry giving Mrs. McFinn a tight hug. He grabbed his bag and hurried out the door. As he climbed into the car, Officer McFinn said. "We're going to stop at a park first, want to talk to you for a moment."

"Okay." said Harry happily. He didn't notice that Officer McFinn didn't look very happy.

They drove to the park just a few blocks away from the Dursleys and Officer McFinn put the car in park. "I want to talk to you about something important." he said solemnly.

"What is it?" asked Harry.

"Well, at work today, we had a call and something happened. And I coudln't stop thinking about you after we arrested the guy, especially after we saw...well...I want to talk to you about bad people." said Officer McFinn.

"Like burglars and murderers?" asked Harry quietly.

"Like them, only this kind of bad person is a little different. These people...well...uh...um..." he looked at Harry with uncertainy and saw Harry looking back at him with confused eyes. "Lets take this a different way. Say that someone, who wasn't related to you or know you like me, or Dr. Clark or Holly came up and just randomly hug you, do you think that that's a good thing?"

"I don't know, is it?" asked Harry.

"It isn't. Unless you know the person, or if the person is related to you, you don't let them hug you." said Officer McFinn. "If someone even touching you slightly makes you feel uncomfortable, you tell me, okay? You tell me and I'll take the man away to jail."

"Yes sir." said Harry looking concerned.

"Okay, and if someone you know, is touching you in a way that you don't like, you tell me, or you tell Inspector Homes down at the station. You got me?" pressed Officer McFinn.

"Yes sir. Um..." said Harry.

Officer McFinn turned as white as a sheet. "What is it Sport?"

"Uncle Vernon, he hits me and I don't like it." said Harry.

"Does he still hit you?" asked Officer McFinn urgently.

"Not lately, not since you dropped me off that one day." said Harry.

"Has anyone else touched you?" said Officer McFinn.

"No sir." said Harry.

"Okay. Well, if someone does, you keep telling the police until the bad person goes to jail. Okay?' said Officer McFinn.

"Yes sir." promised Harry.

Weeks later, there was a pounding on the door late one evening and Mr. McFinn came to the door in his dressing gown. "Who the hell is it?" he groaned as he scratched the back of his head. He opened the door and found an ashen-faced Harry shivering and whimpering on the stoop.

"Harry! What are you doing here?" asked Officer McFinn in shock, he gently pulled Harry into the house and turned on a light.

"O-O-Officer..." said Harry. "R-Rem-Remember what you t-t-told me?"

Officer McFinn looked at Harry in confusion, but then his eyes grew wide. "Who was it?"

"It was one of Uncle Vernon's bosses." said Harry.

Officer McFinn quickly dialed the phone and within minutes several cars pulled up into the drive way. Mrs. McFinn made everyone some coffee and made Harry his favorite tea in order to calm him down. A detective and a social worker took Harry into his bedroom and closed the door behind them.

"Why can't I be with him? He needs me!" said Mrs. McFinn.

"It's the way things are. He'll be okay, but Vernon won't be for long." said Officer McFinn. "Did you call Sam?"

"Yeah, it seemed he was having a date with someone." said Mrs. McFinn with a small smile though her smile was short lived.

"Explains why it looks like someone superglued a broom to his head." said Officer McFinn. In came Dr. Clark, wearing pajamas, a robe, and blue slippers.

"Is he okay?" asked Dr. Clark as he shoved his way into the house.

"Don't quite know yet." said Officer McFinn.

"If it was..." said Dr. Clark scowling darkly.

"Harry says it wasn't, he says it was one of Vernon's bosses." said Officer McFinn. Then the door to Harry's bedroom opened and the social worker came out. "Well? Did that bastard hurt him?"

"No, according to the boy, the man put his hand somewhere where he didn't want it going. So he went and hid in his closet. He didn't come out until the man had left and the Dursley's had gone to bed, then he left and ran here." said the woman.

"Well start an investigation, and we'll see what transpires from that." said the man closing his breifcase.

"What investigation? You know what he did!" said Dr. Clark. Officer McFinn held his friend back.

"It could have been something innocent and the boy merely misinterpeted it." said the man man disdainfully.

"Why you..." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Holly, Sam, if something had happened, they'll nail the bastard to the wall." said Officer McFinn. Then he noticed Harry came out, clutching the blanket and sniffling.

"Harry are you okay?" asked Mrs. McFinn reaching him before anyone else.

"I'm fine, just scared." said Harry quietly.

That night, Harry stayed at the McFinns, he had to sleep in the same bed as the McFinn's due to a recurring nightmare, and then he was driven back to the Dursleys in the morning.

Officer McFinn rapped hard on the door and waited for an answer. Uncle Vernon came to the door and looked down.

"So that's where you went to you little..." growled Uncle Vernon. Harry flinched and hid behind Officer McFinn.

"I want to talk to you in private." said Officer McFinn. "You go on inside, Harry." he ushered Harry inside the house.

"Not without a lawyer present." said Uncle Vernon shortly.

"You need a lawyer present for me to tell you who not to leave your son alone with?" said Officer McFinn in shock. This took Uncle Vernon aback.

"What do you mean?" asked Uncle Vernon.

"That boss of yours, that came last night. Don't leave him alone with Harry or your son." said Officer McFinn.

Uncle Vernon looked back at the house absently and looked at Officer McFinn.

"Mr. Neildon?" said Uncle Vernon meekly.

"He freaked Harry out and he came straight to our house." said Officer McFinn. "I called the authorities, and if you have any fatherly instincts in that body of yours, you'll keep that man away from the kids."

Without saying another word, he turned and left.

Vernon noticed that over the next few days, his new boss Mr. Neildon would seem a bit jumpy and kept answering his phone hesistantly.

"You alright, Mr. Neildon?" asked Vernon, not getting too close, Officer McFinn's words ringing in his ears.

"No...I mean...yes. I'm fine. Just...wasting...their...time..." he mumbled and strolled off, "...don't know which one did it..." he muttered.

Vernon's eyes bugged out.

The next day he walked down the hall to Mr. Neildon's office and saw that he was gone. He looked over and asked his secretary, "Where is he?"

"He cleared out his desk when I arrived, said he quit and was leaving. Never did find out why." she said as she continued to shuffle papers.

Vernon turned and looked at office door and thought _Well, I have an idea._

"Dursley! I want a word with you!" said his boss from down the hall. He walked down as quickly as he could down to the office where his boss was waiting.

"Yes sir?" he asked straightening his tie.

"Dursley, Neildon was at your house a few days ago, do you have any idea why he would just walk off the job?" asked the man leaning back in his chair.

Vernon looked nervously over to the side but turned his eyes back to his employer. "No, sir. I don't have the faintest idea."

"Well, I guess, not everyone can sell drills, but I need someone to take his place. Dursley! Clear out your desk, you're going to take Neildon's place."

Vernon could hardly believe his ears, and it was all thanks to that brat! No, it wasn't Harry's doing, it was his own. They had finally seen that he was the best man for the job, and how he weilded authority.

Harry finished cooking the steaks and adding the chopped garlic and peppers, when Uncle Vernon came home with a smug aura about him.

"Hello family! You're breadwinner and great leader is home!" said Uncle Vernon loudly.

"Did you have a good day dear?" said Aunt Petunia coming over to kiss her husband.

"Got promoted today, Neildon quit." said Uncle Vernon, he looked around, hoping not to see his nephew. "Where's the boy?"

"In the kitchen, making dinner." said Aunt Petunia.

"Well good. Hope it's something good, I deserve something special." said Uncle Vernon puffing out his chest.

It's steak with peppers." said Aunt Petunia.

"It'll do." said Uncle Vernon.

After dinner and Uncle Vernon's after dinner promotion speech, Harry went to his room and worked on his and Dudley's homework. Harry finished his own history paper in less than twenty minutes but then working on Dudley's work was going to take a bit longer. Harry looked at his own work and thought hard about what grade Dudley would have gotten on it.

"Well, a slightly better than average grade would be okay, I guess." said Harry as he set to work. Once he was done he leaned back on his old mattress adn looked up at the spiders beginning to build new webs. "Well, at least that guy is gone. Now I can stop having those strange dreams." He turned over and fell back to sleep. Instead of dreams of Uncle Vernon's old boss, he now had his more pleasant dreams. Full of baking with Mrs. McFinn, playing sports with Dr. Clark and Officer McFinn. The man that tried to hurt him no longer had power over his dreams, and soon, he was completely forgotten.

Somewhere far, far away a man was watching the small boy in a large crystal glass ball. The image on the ball only showed Harry's body, not the surrounding area.

"There you go doc, he doesn't remember a thing." said the man with long blonde hair.

"Good, he doesn't need to be burdened with that, his core wouldn't have been able to handle that for much longer." said another man who was working quietly in the shadows.

"Why are you so attached to this kid?" asked the blonde haired man.

"Let's just say, I have a soft spot for The Boy Who Lived." said the man in the darkness.

"_That's him_?" said the blonde man.

"It is indeed." said the man. "I thank you Lionus. You've been most helpful."

"No problem, you know, I get the feeling..." said Lionus looking at the ball.

"Yes?" asked the other man.

"That he's going to be someone even more impressive than what he's already saddled with." said Lionus as he left the room.

"I concur." said the man quitely.

* * *

**Okay the first REAL acknowledgement of that secret orgainization! **

**Next Question of Week!: What is your favorite game to play?**

**And before you ask what happened to Mr. Neildon. He was never seen again, wonder who made that come about?**


	15. Chapter 15 The Queen

**Okay, I apologize for the shortnessof the chapter. I've got cold and it's kicking my $$. I can't think very straight, and I have no motovation. And if you can tell about the chapter title, it has the Queen in it. I apologize to Great Britian if I don't put her in the right light. I've never met her, but this is how I think (just by what I get reading about her in the papers and magazines) she would act. **

**Last time's Question of the Chapter!: What is your favorite game to play?**

**_DraconaXelphos_: Scrabble and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time**

**I liked Ocarina of Time too, but my N64 copy of it, froze right at the end, AND I NEVER GOT TO COMPLETE IT!**

**My favorite game would have to be Key to the Kingdom an 8 hour long BOARD GAME! It's awesome! It's like a very watered down version of Dungeons and Dragons. **

**Which incidentally _Wulffe_ said he/she liked. **

**But as for the Video game portion...It would have to be Lego Harry Potter both 1-4 and 5-7 for the Wii. And pretty soon, Lego Lord of the Rings for the Wii as well. I fully intend to get up at three o'clock in the morning and drive to Walmart and buy it!**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

Months passed quickly by until finally Holly had to remind her husband that he needed to get a suit for the Queen's garden party. He had been putting it off almost all that month, and now, the clock was ticking down, and Holly wasn't going to let him put it off any further.

"James, when are you going to go and get your suit?" she said one night as she got ready for bed. She looked at him through the mirror and continued to brush her hair.

"Well...uh..." said James. "Soon."

"How about tomorrow?" said Holly said with a smile. "That way we can get a little suit for Harry, and pick up Sam's from the cleaners, his had some coctail stains on it."

"Sure. That sounds like fun." said James with a smirk, "Taking a poor little innocent little kid out to look for an outfit that's going to choke his throat. That won't scar him for life."

"Suits aren't like that." said Holly putting her hands on her hips. "They look handsome and dashing."

"Says the woman who's never worn one." said James laughing.

"Well, if he doesn't like a suit, we can get a different outfit." said Holly as she climbed into their king size bed, her husband put the book down on his nightstand and turned the lamp off.

"Think we'd better plan on him wearing something else. It's a garden party, little boys and dirt get along _WAY_ too well." said James. "And I don't think we can ask them to use their washing machine."

Officer McFinn rapped on the door smartly, and waited. He hoped that Harry's monstrous uncle would answer the door, he wasn't disappointed. Vernon answered the door.

"Well, what do _you _want?" said Vernon sourly.

Officer McFinn rolled his eyes, why _else _would he be there?

"I'm here to take Harry out. We need to get him a formal outfit." said Officer McFinn.

"What on earth for?" said Petunia, who came out when she heard the word 'formal'. She couldn't picture the McFinn's in anything socialable. Mrs. McFinn wasn't in her Garden club, or her Bridge club.

"We're going to the Queen's Garden Party in a month," said Mrs. McFinn, who was standing beside her husband, took Harry's hand as he hurried out. "and Harry'll need a nice outfit."

_"The Queen's_?" said Petunia faintly. She had always wanted to go, the normal Garden party was one thing, but the Queen's _SPECIAL_ party at _the_ Buckingham Palace was another matter all together.

"That's right." said Officer McFinn.

"How did _you_ get invited?" said Vernon angrily.

"Being on the police force helped." said Officer McFinn with a smile. "As well as serving our country."

Vernon flushed. "How do you know I didn't serve the Queen?"

Officer McFinn looked him up and down. "I severely doubt it. Guys go to seed, but not this bad."

"Come on Harry, lets go get your outfit all picked up." said Mrs. McFinn.

After they bid the Dursleys a less than fond farewell, they drove to a popular men's clothing store for Officer McFinn's suit amd to find Harry an outfit..

Mrs. McFinn walked straight over to an elderly man with a long cloth tape measure, who was straightening out a pair of slacks on a counter.

"Ah! Miss Holly!" said the old man coming out from behind the counter and giving her a kiss on each cheek. "You get prettier everyday."

"Oh, stop." said Mrs. McFinn with a blush. "We came to get James' suit altered, Mr. Griffon."

"Alright, James, you know the drill." said the man with a smile to James.

"Yeah, yeah. put the monkey suit on." said James grumbling slightly. He took the suit into a changing room and closed the door behind him.

"Also, I need a nice little formal outfit for Harry." said Mrs. McFinn pushing Harry forward slightly.

"Hello there little chap!" said Mr. Griffon kindly as Harry looked up shyly.

"Hello." said Harry quietly.

"He needs an outfit for the Queen's Garden Party. Something wash-and-wear though please." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile. "Just in case he gets into mischeif."

"Of course, let's see, I think something green...to go with your eyes." said Mr. Griffon walking towards a small rack of children's clothes.

He took several different outfits off the racks and placed them gently on the counter, soon Officer McFinn came out. As he straightened his tie, he looked as if he stepped out of a GQ magazine.

"James, you really need to wear that suit more often." said Mrs. McFinn walking over and kissing her husband. "You look aboslutely dashing."

"Well, it doesn't look like you gained weight." said Mr. Griffon walking around James quickly.

"No, I had a easy time getting into this thing, this year." said Officer McFinn. "Not like two years ago."

"Hmm...that means you lost weight then. That's good, stand on here, and I get the alterations done." said the man taking a large pincushion out of a drawer.

"That'll make my job a bit easier." said Mr. Giffon with a smile.

It was almost an hour later when they walked out of the clothing store with a small pile of thin boxes.

"Well, that takes care of you boys." said Mrs. McFinn holding Harry's hand as they crossed the street. "Tomorrow, I'll go and find a dress."

"What's wrong with your dress from last year?" asked Officer McFinn. "You looked beautiful."

Mrs. McFinn smirked. "Don't you remember what happened last year?"

"Uh...no..." said Officer McFinn. "Not really."

"You spilt coffee all over me." she said.

"Oh, yeah...I thought I saw a holdup man I was looking for." said Officer McFinn sheepishly.

"I was glad it was cold coffee at that point." said Mrs. McFinn.

A month later, Dr. Clark was helping Harry with his little green bow tie.

"I don't like bow ties." said Harry with a frown.

"I don't either, but it's a formal affair." said Dr. Clark as he finished with the bow. "And it's for the Queen, you want to look nice for her, don't you?"

"Yes sir." said Harry.

Officer McFinn came out adjusting his own tie. "How's it going?"

"Harry's all set. How about Holly?" asked Dr. Clark.

"I'm all done." said Mrs. McFinn coming out in a simple blue dress, with a white flower in her hair. She was busy trying to put on the necklace she got for Christmas, around her neck.

"James, could you help me?" she said.

"Sure thing," he reached over and quickly clasped the necklace around her neck. "You look stunning by the way."

"You're sweet." she said with a smile and reached up to kiss her husband. "Are we all set?"

"I think so." said Dr. Clark standing up.

"Yes, ma'am." said Harry with a smile.

"Okay, Harry, you mind your manners alright?" said Officer McFinn.

"Yes sir." said Harry with a bright smile.

When they finally arrived at the Garden Party, Officer McFinn was instantly greeted by other Police Officers.

"We were afraid you weren't going to make it this year." said one of them clapping Officer McFinn on the back.

"You know I make it every year." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

"Yeah, but you always say you don't want to come." said the other with a smirk.

"You never try and get out of it..." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Well...it's a just..." said Officer McFinn.

"I know..." said Mrs. McFinn giving her husband a kiss.

"Harry! Where are you going?" asked Dr. Clark. But Harry was heading at a dead run towards the flower gardens.

"Don't worry about him." said one of the men with a laugh. "There's more security here then at the Louve."

"He must have seen some tiger lilies." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Oh, sweet lord." said Mrs. McFinn clutchting her husband's arm.

"What's wrong?" said Dr. Clark.

"It's my mother." said Holly. "Quick, lets go..."

"Holly! Dear Heart!" said Mrs. McFinn's mother sweeping over to her daughter once she caught sight of her and engulfed her into a large hug and kissed her on both of her cheeks.

She looked just like Mrs. McFinn, only her brownish hair was turning a sort of gray and her demenor had a sort of snobbery about it.

"Sweetie! I was starting to worry you'd never show up!" said her mother pompously.

"I didn't tell you I was..." said Holly quickly.

"Well, honestly, dear, where else would a Lindor be except the Queen's garden party?" she said with a fake laugh.

"Now I know why Holly doesn't talk to her mother all that often." said Sam to James in a whisper.

"Just wait, it gets worse." said James whispering back.

"Come over here dear. I want to introduce you to someone, he's third cousin to the Prince of Wales." said her mother simperingly. "You two would make a charming couple."

"Mother, I've told you, I'm _married_." said Holly with a slight growl.

"Don't growl like that dear, it's unbecoming." said her mother absently. "Hello, Charles, this is my daughter, Holly."

"Hello, Miss Lindor. You're more beautiful than your mother described." said the man bowing low.

He was a tall man, with salt and pepper hair, a straight nose, and wore a tailored made suit. Holly had to admit, he did look quite handsome.

"Uh...hello." said Holly uncertianly. "I apologize for whatever my mother said. But I'm happily married, and he's right over there" she pointed over to where James and Sam were.

"But your mother..." said the man with confused look.

"Yes, but the marriage just isn't right, she's not happy." said her mother trying to save face.

"I am very happy mother." said Holly shortly. "I just said I was."

"How can you dear? That man cannot give you all the things you need!" laughed her mother.

"He gives me love. That is more than enough for me." said Holly getting more and more irritated.

"I really hate to tell her, but I love it when she defends me." said James quietly to Sam.

"I don't blame you." said Sam.

A little ways away, Harry was smelling the different tiger lilies stroking the petals softly. "These are so pretty." he said quietly.

"Hello there, dear." said a kind voice from behind him.

Harry turned and saw a face he had seen on so many postage stamps on on TV so many times. Though Harry noticed, she was much lovlier in person.

"H-hello, y-your M-M-Magjesty." said Harry stammering.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" said the Queen kindly.

"Yes ma'am. You're flowers are so pertty." said Harry humbly.

"Yes, they are." said the Queen with a smile. "I am quite fond of them."

"Miss Holly would love one." said Harry. "She has a bunch in her front garden."

"Would you like to give her one?" she said with a smile.

"Oh, yes!" gushed Harry. "Are you sure I can?"

"Brentson? Please give this boy the best pair of tiger lilies we have." said the Queen to one of the passing gardeners.

"Please, your Majesty." said Harry shyly. "I can just have one. I don't want to take two, they belong here."

"As you wish, dear boy." said the Queen with a smile. "Just one then Brentson."

The gardener handed him a single lily and they smiled as they watched Harry run swiftly away.

"Such a dear little thing." said Queen with a smile.

Suddenly they heard a horrifying scream.

"My lady!" said the gardener.

"Come along, I have a feeling, I know what it is about. If Asotria is here, then we might have a bit more _excitement_, than normal. " said the Queen with a rueful smile.

She walked regally over to where she could hear a woman's voice shrieking out for the security.

"How dare you! You defiled the royal gardens!" said the woman shrieking loudly.

"I gave him that flower." said the Queen, walking behind Harry. The woman stopped screaming instantly. "He asked if he could have one for his Miss Holly."

Mrs. McFinn blushed heavily and nervously took the lily. Her mother was utterly speechless.

"You have a very well behaved child here." said the Queen graciously. "He was raised well."

"That's up for debate." said Officer McFinn grumbling quietly.

"Why do you say that, Mr. McFinn?" asked the Queen. James looked shocked that she knew his name.

"W-well, your Majesty, he grew up in less than loving circumstances." said Officer McFinn stuttering slightly.

"Should I get involved?" said the Queen with a commanding look.

"Please no ma'am." said Harry quickly.

The adults beside him looked down at him in surprise, except for Astoria Lindor, who was still gaping at the Queen.

"Why do you say that dear?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"Uncle Vernon, he..." said Harry quietly. "Don't want anyone else to get in trouble."

"Dear, what if I say that I cannot get into trouble?" said the Queen kindly.

Harry looked down uncertainly.

"Well, if..." said Harry quietly.

"I'll look into it." said the Queen majestically. "And we will see what transpires."

"Yes ma'am." said Harry quietly.

The rest of the garden party went as smoothly as ever after that. Mrs. McFinn wore the lily in her hair for the rest of the day, and did her best to avoid her mother. Strangely, the Queen took a shine to Harry and didn't allow him too far away from her.

"Harry, this is the Prime Minister." said the Queen gently.

"Hello sir." said Harry meekly.

"Hello, young man." said the man gently "I've never seen you take to a child like this." he added to the Queen.

"This one is special...I have feeling..." said the Queen to herself.

Officer McFinn, Mrs. McFinn and Dr. Clark, were looking at shock over to Harry and the Queen.

"All of a sudden, I remembering the Track races and when I said the thing about the royal ball." said Holly quietly.

"Yeah, that's been beating through my brain too." said Sam.

"Maybe, with her help, we'll get Harry!" said Holly excitedly.

"I hope so too." said James. "But I can't help but be skeptical."

Once the party had ended, the Queen escorted Harry back to the McFinns and Dr. Clark..

"I hope you come back next year." said the Queen kindly. "And lets see if I can fix the problem at home." said the Queen gently.

"Thank you, your Majesty." said Harry quietly.

They followed everyone else off the grounds and climbed into the McFinn's car.

"Did you enjoy yourself, honey?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"Oh, yeah! The other kids are never going to believe that I met the _Queen_!" said Harry excitedly.

"You even going to try?" said Dr. Clark with a smile.

"They'd never believe me, what's the point?" said Harry.

"Cause it happened, kid. And if other people try and tell you it didn't, you just keep telling them it did. They weren't there, they don't know anything." said Officer McFinn.

Several days later, Officer McFinn came in and threw his coat on the chair and slumped in his armchair.

"The world is full of bastards." said Officer McFinn putting a hand to his face.

"Dear, what's wrong?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"The Queen sent a man to investigate Harry's living conditions. He stopped at Harry's house while he was in school and had only the Dursley's twisted point of view. Then he stopped at the station. Didn't even bother to acknowledge all the evidence we had on him." said Officer McFinn sourly.

"Than why did he stop down?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"To tell me that I had Dursley pegged all wrong." said Officer McFinn. "I don't know how the hell everyone gets swindled by him. He's an open book to us."

"Maybe Harry's right..." said Mrs. McFinn.

"He normally is, but what about this time?" said Officer McFinn with a laugh.

"That Vernon is the best faker ever." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Well, he's got Vernon pegged. The Prime Minister called Inspector Homes and asked about it. Inspector Homes told him the truth about everything, and called the Investigator an idiot."

"Still, can't the Queen do something?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"No proof, no action." said Officer McFinn. "But the Prime Minister said the Queen would like Harry to come to the Queen's Garden Party every year. He has a permanent invitation, and he can visit the Palace whenever he pleases. You don't hear of that anymore. I swear if he was older, he'd get a knighting, for no reason at all." he added with a smirk.

"Well, at least he has a few escape routes, besides our house, Sam's or Inspector Homes'." said Mrs. McFinn. "Why can't the Queen just pick him up and take to the palace?"

"Even she has to go through proper channels." said Officer McFinn grimly.

"What's the point of being Queen then?" said Mrs. McFinn sadly.

* * *

**Okay, like I said sorry for the short chapter, but thank you for reading!**

**Please Review and answer...**

**The QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER! : **_**What was the saddest moment from either a T.V. show or a movie from when you were little? **_**And no fair saying Bambi's mom getting shot, you aren't human unless you find that the saddest part of your childhood movie experience.**


	16. Chapter 16 Training for the Future

**Well, I'm feeling a lot better, still a little under the weather but I'm gettting there. I know what your thinking, why is this chapter so short too?**

**Answer is, it was either this one, or next weeks chapter, and I thought it would be better to have this nice short little chapter right here. Trust me...you'll thank me in two weeks**

**Best Answer: Well, most of you guys mentioned Simba's Dad dying, that seems to be the consensus. Though some of you mentioned Shilo, Old Yeller and that Girl from the Bridge of Terabithia. And also the movie with Fred Savage and he gets put in a home. **

**I'd have to say the ReaderGirl321 wins that one. I read that book once, I can't read it ever again, and I won't watch the movie. **

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

Officer McFinn walked the halls of a large police academy, remembering the times he had spent here becoming an officer of the law. He still couldn't believe that his Inspector wanted him to take part in a special class for observations.

"What did I do to deserve this?" said Officer McFinn to himself. "Teaching Harry is one thing, but a bunch of rookies is different."

"Come on McFinn, you're the only one in the precinct that has that gift, best try and teach it to the up and coming officers." said Inspector Homes earlier that week.

"I can't teach them all that in one class, Harry's brilliant and he's just now flying through the lessons." said Officer McFinn.

"Still, it can't hurt to give them the fundamentals." said Inspector Homes.

"It's not math." said Officer McFinn.

"Just do your best, the force would appreciate it." said Inspector Homes.

Officer McFinn sighed as he continued down the hall. He stopped infrront of the room marked '_Investigative Techniques_'

"This is going to be a long day." said Officer McFinn shaking his head.

He walked into the room and placed his hat down on the desk. No one else was in the room, except for someone writing on a chalkboard.

"I'm supposed to report here, I'm Officer James McFinn." said Officer McFinn.

"Hey, I'm Sergeant O'Brien." said the man taking Officer McFinn's hand and shaking it. "I'm the Instructor for this class. It was good of you to come today."

"Let's say, I was gently coerced." said Officer McFinn.

"Yeah, Inspector Homes is like that." said Sergeant O'Brien. "He's pretty good at manipulating. The class won't start for another fifteen minutes. You want to go and get a cup of coffee?"

"Sure." said Officer McFinn.

As they sat in the cafeteria drinking their coffee, Detective O'Brien gave him a friendly warning.

"Some of these rookies are pretty sharp, and some of the female rookies can be a bit self-important. They may ask some tough questions. You will be asked to give each an evaluation of their behavior today. Being the infamous Modern Sherlock Holmes, you'd be able to get to see what the rookies are really like." said Detective O'Brien

"I'm not a psychiritrist." said Officer McFinn.

"Yeah, but you should be able to tell if they will be good police officers." said Detective O'Brien.

"I'll do my best." said Officer McFinn. "But I hope my word isn't a swaying vote."

"It'll hold some weight, but we'll still go through the proper channels. Let's go back to the room, class should be starting soon." said Detective O'Brien.

Later, when the class finally started Sergeant O'Brien stood up. "Okay, rookies, we have someone from the Little Whining precinct. He's one of the few people in Britain that have observation skills great enough to be able to tell at a distance if he's got a weapon or not. He's going to try and pass some skills onto you guys."

Several of the students looked at each other in shock.

Officer McFinn walked in through the open door and faced them all.

_'They rookies, through and through, never faced a man with a gun intent on killing them. Never responded to a robbery, rape or anything. They have no idea how horrible this world can be, was I ever this innocent?_' he thought with a smirk. _'At least eight of them had military training. Thatl'll help them.'_

Before Officer McFinn could even speak, one of the female officers raised her hand.

"How is it you haven't been promoted to Detective or Inspector, yet?" she asked.

_'Great, a sucess driven cop. She'll need a wake up call._' he thought grimly. '_They all will._'

"I find it better to be on the front lines, I can help more people, and being the first on the scene, I can see what had really happened, without touching anything." said Officer McFinn.

"So, you're like a real life Sherlock Holmes?" asked another female rookie.

_'Saw that one coming_.' he said shaking his head softly.

"Not quite, nowhere near his level, and I'm employed by the police department." said Officer McFinn.

"Enough personal questions." said Detective O'Brien. "Lets get down to the actual thing we're here to learn. Now..." he pulled down a white rolled up screen. Then he turned the lights down, and turned on an overhead video projector. On the screen showed a man, in a soccer player uniform, and holding a trophy.

"Alright rookies, tell me what you can about this man." said the Detective.

"He's a soccer player." said one of the rookies.

"And a good one." said another one.

"Anything else?" asked Detective O'Brien. "What about you Officer McFinn?"

"He's a baker, gambler, and he's decent forward, but he's not the best on the team. He smokes, is a diabetic and is a divorce father." said Officer McFinn.

The rookies stared at him.

"Just wait until he tells you how he can deduce that." said Detective O'Brien with a smile.

About an hour later, the class stared at Officer McFinn with eyes full of respect and their mouths hanging open.

"Okay, that's all for today, try and see what you can deduce from others." said the Detective.

They began to pack up and walk out of the room, a few male rookies waved to him, but some of the female rookies stayed behind.

"Officer McFinn? We were just going to go and get some coffee, do you want to join us?" one of them said with a smile.

"No thanks, I've got to get home, it's my day off, and I promised my wife and my little boy I'd take them to the park for a picnic." he said with a smile. _'And you're not my type.'_

James finished loading the trunk of his car with all the picnic supplies that his wife had prepared and slammed the trunk shut.

"Sam is here dear." said Holly carrying a large picnic basket.

"Am I on time?" said Sam with a smirk as he closed the door of his own car.

"Yeah, we just need to go and pick up Harry and then head to the park." said James with a smile.

"Good, I brought the football he got me for Christmas, so we should be able to have some fun before lunch." said Sam, spinning the ball on his forefinger.

"Careful, Harry's been practicing football in his gym class. He's getting really good." said James with a laugh.

"That'll make the game all the more fun." said Sam. "Besides, I don't think the game will last all that long, knowing him."

Afther they picked up Harry, which took some sneaky strategy. They had waited until Vernon took his son Dudley off to his friend's birthday party, and took Harry out of the house.

"Harry come on." said Officer McFinn by the curb. "Let's go."

"Aunt Petunia, I'm going to the McFinn's!" said Harry quickly into the house.

"Where are we going?" he asked happily as he sat on the backseat.

"We're going to park, for a picnic." said Officer McFinn from the front seat.

"While we're there, we can play football, Harry." said Dr. Clark patting the foot ball on his lap.

"YAY!" he shouted loudly.

"He's so cute!" gushed Mrs. McFinn.

"He's such a manipulator." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

"You're so cynical." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile. "You love being manipulated by him."

"Only you and him." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

When they arrived at the park, Harry took the ball off of Dr. Clark's lap and hurried off to the grass filled park. Dr. Clark chased after him. "Get back here!"

"I'll help you set up the blanket." said Officer McFinn to his wife.

"You go and play." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile. "I can handle this."

"Nah, I'll help. Sam can keep an eye on him for now."

Dr. Clark finally caught up to Harry who was bouncing the ball off the top of his head.

"Come on Dr. Clark! Bet I can keep the ball away from you!" said Harry letting the ball fall to the ground.

"Bet you can't." said Dr. Clark, taking the initiative and kicking the ball away from Harry's feet.

"Hey!" said Harry chasing after the ball. Harry finally got to the ball and made to kick it away, when Dr. Clark picked him up and kicked the ball himself. "That's not fair!" whined Harry.

"Not my fault you're so light, you should eat more." said Dr. Clark with a laugh. He placed the small boy upon his shoulders. "Hang on!"

Mrs. McFinn looked up and saw Harry riding around on Dr. Clark's shoulders and laughing. "Looks like they abandoned their ball game." she said with a smile.

"That lasted a whole two minutes." said James with a laugh as he helped his wife finish unloading the basket.

"Well, what do you expect, Sam's legs are about as long as Harry's entire body. Harry wouldn't have been able to keep up." said Mrs. McFinn.

"He did just fine during the Track Championships." said Officer McFinn wth a smile.

"That was a race, this is play." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile. "Boys! Lunch time!"

"Come on Sport, we got your favorite sandwiches!" called Officer McFinn.

Dr. Clark had to drop Harry a bit so he'd ride on his back 'Horsie' style because Harry was squirming so much. "Ease up, we're going." he said with a laugh.

Harry leaned against Officer McFinn's side as he munched his sandwich. "Hey Sport."

"Yeah?" asked Harry looking up at Officer McFinn.

"Let's practice what you've been learning. The man over in blue by that bench..."

Harry looked over at the man, who was wearing a plain t-shirt, jeans, white tennis shoes and reading a small book. He had some white patches on both his shirt and pants.

"What does he do for a living?" asked Officer McFinn.

"He's a male nanny." said Harry with a smile.

"How the heck do you know that?" asked Dr. Clark, wiping his mouth after he spat out his soda.

"He has baby powder on his shirt and pants." said Harry. "He's got pink crayon on his shoes and that book he's reading, is a child psychology book. If he was a dad, he wouldn't bother with that book." he added with a smile.

"Why do you say that?" said Dr. Clark, he didn't want to mention that he had been brushing up on child psychology to better understand Harry.

"It's more fun to learn about your kids the old fashion way, isn't it?" said Harry with a smile.

"Sure..." said Dr. Clark with a smile.

"What about that guy walking towards us?" said Mrs. McFinn pointing to a a man in a dark coat with a hat low over his eyes. Officer McFinn looked up, immediately tensed up.

"Bad man." said Harry whimpered.

Officer McFinn reached behind himself and took ahold of the police revolver in the back of his pants.

The man walked over to them, and showed a flash of metal, a long knife coming from the extra large sleeve. "Give me your money and stay quiet."

Mrs. McFinn clutched at Harry tightly out of fear. Dr. Clark moved forward to sheild the both of them.

"Drop the knife." said Officer McFinn holding his service revolver up for the mugger to see it.

The man saw the gun and the part of his face they could see, turned a deathly shade of white.

"I said drop it, Sam, call headquarters and have someone come down. Have a seat and shut up."

The man turned and took off.

"Well, so much for the peaceful approach, I'll be right back." said Officer McFinn standing up quickly and running after the man.

"_James!_" shouted Mrs. McFinn as her husband ran after the man.

"Don't worry Holly." said Dr. Clark as he held onto Harry while talking to the police department on the phone. "He'll be fine, he's got a gun, that beats that little steak knife that kid had."

It was a few moments till Officer McFinn came back. "That didn't take too long, stupid fool ran right into a squad car's door. Stupid idiot." said Officer McFinn with a laugh.

"How can you laugh? You just ran off after him!" said Mrs. McFinn with tears in her eyes.

Officer McFinn looked at her sadly. "Honey, that's my job, when most people run away, I have to go towards it." said Officer McFinn.

"But you aren't working today." she said sadly.

"If I notice something wrong, I just can't ignore it." said Officer McFinn. "But I promise, the rest of today is yours."

"It better be." said Mrs. McFinn wiping her eyes.

"Is the bad person gone?" said Harry.

"He won't be bothering us anymore." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"Should we postpone this picnic?" asked Dr. Clark patting Harry's head.

"It's up to you two guys." said Officer McFinn to Mrs. McFinn and Harry.

"I'm okay." said Harry.

"I am too, just don't go running off again." said Mrs. McFinn.

"I won't I promise." said Officer McFinn with a smile. "Now, let's finish with lunch."

After lunch, they drove back to the McFinn's house and settled Harry down for a quick nap, after all that excitement, Harry was still shaken up.

"You get some rest, Sport." said Officer McFinn. "It'll be alright."

"Don't leave." said Harry quietly. Officer McFinn turned and looked Harry, who was laying on his bed.

"Okay then, budge over." said Officer McFinn and he climbed into Harry's bed. Harry immediately cuddled up to Officer McFinn and didn't move.

"It's alright, I'm always going to be there to protect you." said Officer McFinn.

* * *

**I know I said that I'd do more than this, but this chapter was perfect for what is coming next. If you've read Exploring Harry Potter's Life, you might know. Here's a hint for the next chapter: Bring tissues closer to the computer.**

**Thank you for reading! Please review and answer...**

**Question of the Chapter!: What genre of movie or Tv show will you NEVER watch?**

**For me; I HATE chick flicks or romance shows, and soap operas. I am by no means a girly kind of girl, I fast forward through the romantic parts and go straight to the explosions and the fights.**


	17. Chapter 17 The Passing of a Hero

**Okay, I'm feeling a lot better!**

**Last Question of the Chapter, Favorite Genre of Movie/T.V show.**

**Annabella Lucy Nox: ****I hated romances and horror movies/shops. Romance movies such as Mama Mia are drop dead boring and unrealistic. Horror movies give me nightmares. I love action and adventure though.**

**Okay, I warned you last time...bring tissues, and can you put off lynch mobbing me till after Christmas?**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

May was half over and Officer McFinn was on duty, which was nothing really new for the middle of the week. Just like normal, the police had to work hard to protect their personal district from the criminal element.

Lately, they've been pulling double duty, thanks to a dangerous gang of armed robbers. They were ruining the peace of mind of everyone in the country, and not just in Little Whinging. They didn't just terrorize homes, they attacked everything from banks to supermarkets. Not one person was left alive, be it citizens, or the initial officers that responded to the call.

Mrs. McFinn was getting more and more worried, she wouldn't go out or let Harry do her shopping for her. She signed up for the "Doorway Delivery" that the supermarkets were offering to their customers to continue their businesses. They charged about ten pounds a week for it, but it was the safest way to do their shopping.

"James, I wish you would take your vacation time now." said Holly one evening as they ate an intimate dinner alone together.

"I can't, not with those nut-jobs out there." said James. "But I will when those guys either get caught, or when they decide to move out of the area."

Everyday, both she and Harry would wait till Officer McFinn would get home and when he would, they would both swarm him with hugs and in Mrs. McFinn's case, kisses. It was a terrifying two weeks, that they all had to endure. Officer McFinn couldn't lie and say he wasn't relieved that he went home at nights.

The days that Harry was forced to stay at the Dursleys' or the days he had to go to school, his ears would perk up and a nervous sweat would show up on his forehead. He hadn't been able to sleep well at night due to the fear and nightmares that had plagued his dreams.

Despite his intense dislike for the Police Department since the investigation on him about the altercation that occured between he and his nephew. He wanted those thugs caught as well.

"Why won't they get their asses in gear and catch those fiends?" snarled Uncle Vernon one night during the newsbroadcast.

"I agree." said Aunt Petunia sniffing disdainfully. "We spend more to have the groceries delivered then just having the boy going to go get them himself."

"Why not just send him like before. If something happens, so be it." said Uncle Vernon.

"I tried." said Aunt Petunia sourly. "The shop called and told me to come and pick him up, groceries and all. It was embarrassing."

"What did the wretched boy do?" asked Uncle Vernon angrily.

"Amazingly it wasn't him, it was the busybodies down at the store. Feared for his safety." she said rolling her eyes.

Harry was busy in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on the soup that he had made for dinner. His ears strained to hear what was being said on the news.

_"The police have reassured the public that they are getting closer to catching the culprits of the multiple robberies and assaults that has occured over the past few weeks."_ said the announcer on the television.

"I hope so." said Harry in a slight whimper.

"BOY! WHERE'S MY DINNER!" shouted Uncle Vernon.

"Coming, Uncle Vernon." said Harry quickly as he ladled several bowls of his cucumber soup and took them out to the living room.

"'Bout time." snarled Uncle Vernon as he wrenched a bowl off the serving tray. Dudley yanked a large bowl off the tray and began slurping the soup noisily.

Harry walked back into the kitchen and began tidying up the kitchen.

"I can't wait until they get caught." said Harry quietly. "Then Officer McFinn can settle down and get some rest."

The next morning, Harry went to school as per normal, but he was given a long shopping list by Aunt Petunia to the supermarket on Bensington street. No one would know her there, and they wouldn't want to insult any new customers that they could get. Harry didn't want to go to to a market with all the threats of robbers and murderers about. But he had no other choice that he could think of.

Later that day, after the schools had let loosed their young charges, Officer McFinn was driving around with his partner and answering the random calls that would come on the air.

"If we get one more call about someone wanting us to decide who's fence is on who's property, I'm going to scream. " said his young partner.

"That's not good, especially since we've only had to handle one in your entire time of being an probationary officer." said Officer McFinn with a smirk.

"I just couldn't stand all the whining and shouting." said his partner.

"Get used to that real fast, if you don't, you aren't going to last long in this profession." said Officer McFinn with a smile.

"What do you recommend I do?" asked his partner eagerly. "I don't want to have come this far and not make it."

"One call at a time." said Officer McFinn. "After a while, you'll get used to neighbor squabbles. Well, here's the new Bensington market, lets pull ahead and..."

As they pulled past one of the windows to a supermarket, a shot rang out and went through their windsheild.

Officer McFinn slammed the brakes on their police vehicle, Officer McFinn opened his door and kneeled in the road. His partner crawled on the front seat to get to where Officer McFinn was.

Officer McFinn reached into the police car and grabbed the radio.

"This is car 14, we got a shooting at the new Bensington Street Supermarket. Might be the boys we're looking for." said Officer McFinn into the small radio. He reached into his holster and pulled out his gun.

"What now?" asked his young partner. "We've never had something like this before."

"Except for that molester, no." said Officer McFinn, he looked slowly over to where he saw a man standing in the window with a gun pointing directly on the car. He ducked down as a bullet slammed into the rear view mirror. "We wait for back up."

In a few moments sirens and squealing of tires came to impose on the small street, people were huddled in nooks and crannies of different buildings on Officer McFinn's orders.

Several officers came around to where Officer McFinn and his partner were stationed.

"What have we got?" asked Inspector Homes creeping up to them.

"We were fired from inside the store!" said the young officer quickly.

"I've seen a total of four guys inside, plus two women accomplices, they have the workers and a few customers as hostages." said Officer McFinn. "It's the group we've been looking for."

"You recognized it from the circulars?" asked Inspector Homes.

"Yeah, I saw their leader, he was the first one to take the shot at us." said Officer McFinn.

"Okay," he took the radio from Officer McFinn, reached in and switched the dial, and then spoke into the handheld part.

"_This is the police! We have the building surrounded, come out with your hands up." _said the Inspector's voice being intensified over the vehicle's loudspeaker.

"Really? We say that?" whispered the younger officer.

"Sometimes, when we don't have anything more dramatic to say." said Officer McFinn with a faint smile.

The Inspector's warning was replied with a rain of bullets pelting the side of the police cars.

"We got hostages!" shouted one of the men inside. "Keep that in mind!"

"What do we do now, Inspector?" asked Officer McFinn.

"Where's that negotiator?" asked Inspector Homes.

"Right here, sir." said a man coming up behind him.

"Get to it, I'll orgainize the assaut team in case something goes wrong." said Inspector Homes.

It took the negotiator about an hour to get the scoundrels to agree to allowing at least half of the hostages go.

The Officer McFinn was helping a family try and calm down their kids.

"I wanna go home!" cried the children.

Officer McFinn looked up at the man, "Why don't you take them home?"

"More exciting here." said the man with a smile.

Officer McFinn stood up and scowled at the man. "It's not safe here, take your kids home!"

The man looked taken aback, gathered up his kids and wife, and hurried upstairs into the apartment building.

"Keep away from the windows!" said Officer McFinn to their backs. "Stupid idiot." Officer McFinn turned around and what he saw, turned his blood cold.

He saw a small child walking swiftly out of the building and facing away from the police officers, his hands were up, he had loose fitting clothes, and scruffy black hair.

"_Harry_?" said Officer McFinn weakly.

"Hey! Cops! You aren't dealing with amateurs!" shouted one of the men from inside the building.

Suddenly shots rang out and the people who were released from the market fell to the ground, Officer McFinn ran as fast as he could to reach the small boy.

"Get down!" he pushed the boy onto the sidewalk, out of the visual range of the shooter.

Then, he heard a bang, a searing pain went through his chest, and he knew no more.

In the darkness, he felt himself being pushed around on some sort of flat surface and he opened his eyes slightly.

"Don't worry James." said a voice over him. He looked up, despite the blurry vision, he could tell it was Sam. "We called Holly she'll be here in a moment."

"Harry...is Harry alright?" asked James, his voice was thick, yet weak sounding.

Sam's eyes grew big when he heard what James had said, looked over to the child that had been brought in as well. The boy had a several bruises and cuts, the kid looked _sort of _like Harry. But it wasn't. Sam decided to ease James' fears, he had enough on his plate.

"Not a scratch on him, James." said Sam. "You just relax." He didn't need say that last part, James had passed out again.

"Let's get him into surgery." said Sam quickly. "Page Frank, I'd rather have him down here."

"Yes, Dr. Clark." said one of the nurses.

It was about twenty minutes later when Mrs. McFinn came crashing into the hospital.

"Where is my husband?" she said loudly to the E. R. nurse.

"Holly." said Dr. Clark coming out of a side room.

Holly turned towards where he was and then ran to him. "Where is James?" tears filled her eyes.

"He's in surgery right now. Holly...it doesn't look too good." said Dr. Clark gently.

Holly fell weakly into a nearby wheelchair, and covered her face to hide her tears from the rest of the world. "Has anyone told Harry yet?" asked Holly thickly.

"No, I want to wait until James comes out of surgery." said Sam. "I would rather not cause him to worry, we can do enough of that."

Hours later, Harry, was standing on a small little step stool and reaching for little jars and small canisters of spices, he had to stand on tiptoe just to reach the things he needed.

Good thing he had done the shopping earlier that morning, nothing he needed to get required refrigeration, so he lucked out. He was shaking a canister of spice over a boiling pot when he heard the doorbell ring.

"BOY! GET THE DOOR!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the living room, which was, maybe, ten feet away from the aforementioned door. Harry turned the stove off, placed a lid on top and wandered out to the front door.

Harry opened the door to find Dr. Clark he had reddened eyes.

"Hello, Dr. Clark! What can I do for you?" said Harry brightly.

"Take them outside!" shouted Uncle Vernon, not knowing it was only Dr. Clark. "I don't want them in here!"

"Yes, sir." said Harry, he shut the door behind himself. "What is it, Dr. Clark?" said Harry happily.

"Harry...um...let's...let's go for a ride." said Dr. Clark finally, his throat seemed to be constricted by something. He picked the smiling young boy up and took him to his car.

Harry looked out the window and noticed that they were driving to the same park that they went to celebrate Bonfire Night. Once they had arrived Dr. Clark, with Harry in his arms, went walking towards the nearest bench.

As he sat down, Dr. Clark sat Harry on his lap. Dr. Clark looked tired, and very upset, while Harry was bouncing around, excited to get out of Privet Drive.

"Harry I need to talk to you, about something." said Dr. Clark.

"What is it? Is Officer McFinn and Mrs. McFinn coming? Are we going somewhere?" said Harry excitedly.

"No, Harry, James and Holly aren't coming. I need to tell you something, very important."

"What is it?" smiled Harry.

"Harry, I'm...Off..." he stammered, he looked up into the sky and tears began to well in his eyes. He was used to telling people bad news, but to someone he knew, and loved, it was very difficult.

"Harry...you know...uh...how...Officer McFinn had to...w-work today?" said Dr. Clark thickly.

"Yes, sir." said Harry nodding eagerly.

"W-well Of-Officer McFinn got called to a store today, and...well...he was met with some very bad people. They were taking things that didn't b-belong to them, and they were using guns to try and hu-hurt people..." said Dr. Clark, trying to explain to Harry what was wrong. He had to be very careful about how he put things, but he wasn't too sure how to go about it.

"And Officer McFinn got them no problem!" yelled Harry happily throwing his arms into the air in victory.

"There was a problem, Harry." said Dr. Clark sadly, Harry's hands slowly lowered. "They came out shooting their guns at anything and everything. There was...a little boy in the street, Officer McFinn saw him and tr...tried to get him out of there. Officer McFinn got hurt, very badly. They had to bring him to the hospital."

Harry had a look of the utmost horror. "Officer..." he hopped off Dr. Clark's lap and wanted to run back to the car and go to the hospital. But Dr. Clark caught him before he could touch the ground.

"Let me go! I wanna see him, LET ME GO!" yelled Harry, kicking in the air.

People turned and stared at the man and child.

"Harry," said Dr. Clark, he grabbed Harry's legs and cradled the little boy. "Harry, I'm sorry, we didn't want to tell you, until we had no choice, Officer McFinn is...he's...gone..." he said, stray tears falling from his eyes.

Harry stared at him, it was several minutes before Harry even moved. He started to shake his head, "No...he can't...he..." Harry started to cry, uncontrollably. Dr. Clark hugged him tightly, Harry screamed and pounded his small fists against the man's chest. Passersby were standing around staring, some were even dialing 999 to get the police to come and get the boy away from the man, they suspected, was hurting him.

Several minutes later, police officers came out to the park and saw who it was, and who he was consoling. The officers reassured the people around that Dr. Clark was breaking really bad news to the little boy. Some people weren't convinced, especially when Harry gave a soul-wrenching scream.

Dr. Clark flinched horribly and held Harry even tighter to himself. "_Dear Lord, Harry, I'm so sorry!_" thought Dr. Clark bitterly.

Harry couldn't be consoled by anybody, he cried, screamed, and beat his small fists into Dr. Clark for twenty minutes more, until finally and unwillingly, he cried himself to sleep. Dr. Clark continued to hug him tightly and rock him back and forth gently. He looked up to the one of the officers that stayed behind.

"I'm going to take him to Holly's, she told me she was going home after seeing to...don't know if that will help Harry, but she wanted to see him." he said standing up.

"Okay, you want me to drive you? So you don't need to put the little guy down?" asked the officer.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you for coming by." said Dr. Clark standing up carefully and kissed the top of Harry's head, and deposited his tears into the scruffy locks.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at Holly's, he gently laid the sleeping Harry on a sofa and took Holly's into his arms. He held onto her as she cried into his shoulder.

"Oh...Sam...what am I going to do? He was my world, my best friend!" she cried.

"I know Holly, he was great man. God!" he said bitterly. "I can't believe it, I still can't believe it!"

"Do you know if he was in any pain?" she asked after a half an hour of crying. "I don't think I can.."  
"No, we don't think he felt a thing, it went straight through his spine. Do you need help with any arrangements, Holly?" asked Dr. Clark carefully.

"No, no, Chief Harrison and his wife are helping me take care of things. I would like some help with Harry though." she said looking back towards the small figure on her couch.

"You've got it, I could never abandon him now." said Dr. Clark sadly.

"How did he take it?" she asked, walking over to him and brushing the bangs out of his tear-laden eyes, and throwing a fluffy blanket over top of him. She gently pulled the thumb out of his mouth.

"Really, really bad. The way he screamed, it tore my heart right out of my chest. Little guy's been through hell, and he's being thrown into a repeat performance. I don't know who has it in for this kid, but whoever it is, demon or human, they'll have me to deal with." said Dr. Clark, sitting beside the couch and rubbing Harry's little head.

Harry whimpered and opened his eyes, he looked at Mrs. McFinn, who still had some evidence of crying, then he started crying again. She sat one the couch and pulled him into a comforting embrace.

"It will be alright sweetie, we'll get through this." said Mrs. McFinn.

Several days later, they stood in a church cemetery. Harry, Dr. Clark, and Holly were motionless in front of a large crowd and faced towards a dark brown casket. Harry was dressed in a little blue suit and holding a lily, while Dr. Clark and Mrs. McFinn, both in black, held a rose, each. Harry walked up and placed the lily on the casket and backed up slowly, not taking his eyes off the coffin, tears still flowing from them. People walked slowly past them and gave Mrs. McFinn hugs and reassuring words of sympathy, the Queen herself, came and placed a blue rose on the casket offered her condolences to Holly, taking her by the hand, and giving her a medal, in honor of Officer McFinn for saving the little boy. She then went over to little Harry and gave him a hug, wiping his eyes with her own handkerchief.

"If you need someone to talk to, or somewhere to stay, the palace is always open to you." said the Queen kindly.

"Thank you, your Majesty." said Harry quietly.

Later on that day, he was back in the Dursleys' and back into his dirty clothes. He was carrying pots and pans from the sink to the cabinets, when Dudley shoved him roughly into the stove. Harry fell hard onto his knees.

"Dad says that police officer won't come by anymore. Says that he got shot." said Dudley with a wicked grin. Harry looked down in grief, tears still flowing freely down his face. That was a hit below the belt. How could Dudley, who was barely older than himself, be so cruel?

Uncle Vernon then came in the kitchen, with a broad, demonic grin.

"See, boy? See, what happens? You're jinxed, anyone that even remotely cares about you, dies. Your parent's died in a car crash, now your precious Officer McFinn was gunned down."

Harry fell on all fours and cried, Uncle Vernon pulled him off the floor by his arm, dragged him to the cupboard under the stairs picked him up and threw him inside the cupboard, like bag of unwanted rubbish and slammed the door behind the unfortunate boy. Harry buried his face onto his filthy mattress and blanket.

"It's not fair." sobbed Harry. "What did I do wrong? I want Officer McFinn back!" He looked up into the ceiling of the cupboard, tears streaked down his cheeks, burning. "What do you want of me?"

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**Okay, now don't scream at me. I've had planned on him dying in January. **

**In memory of Officer James Gordon McFinn, there will be no Question of the Week.**

**(If you think I'm being silly, you're wrong. After awhile, these characters really become real to you.)**


	18. Chapter 18 Sergeant Doctor

**Okay, It's another chapter!**

**I hated to kill off Officer McFinn, but if this is going to be a splinter story to my Exploring Harry Potter's Life, they have to match up to a certain extent. **

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Over the past few days, Harry had tentaively gone to Mrs. McFinn's house. He couldn't begin to make himself feel comfortable in the house where the man he viewed as a father would never again walk in the door. Just the thought of never seeing Officer McFinn again crushed his heart and made it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"Did they get the guys?" asked Harry in a quiet voice. "The ones that took Officer McFinn away?" He never asked the question, fearing the worse.

Mrs. McFinn's hand, that was strring a bowl of icing, stopped suddenly. "Yes, sweetheart, they got them. They'll never hurt anyone ever again." She didn't look at him, she just looked down at the periwinkle blue icing.

"I hope they don't." said Harry, fat tears cascading down his cheeks. Mrs. McFinn looked up and saw the tears streaking down his cheek, walked around the counter and engulfed him in a large hug.

"I miss him too, dear. I really do. But you know what? James wouldn't want us to just stop living would he?" she said kindly, wiping the tears away. "It's going to take some time, but we'll make it."

"It's hard." said Harry sobbing into her blouse.

"I know honey. I know." said Mrs. McFinn quietly.

Dr. Clark sat in the doctor's lounge, fingering a photograph of him, Holly, Harry and James.

"You died trying to protect Harry...and he wasn't even there. I can't ever tell Holly, or Harry that." said Dr. Clark, wiping the moisture from his eyes. "It would kill the both of them."

Suddenly, a nurse came into the room, looked around and sighed when she saw him.

"Dr. Clark? There's someone here to see you." said the nurse.

"Send him in here, I don't feel up to walking around right now." said Dr. Clark rubbing his eyes.

She left the room, then a figure came inside in full miltary uniform.

"Forgive me if I don't salute." said Dr. Clark.

"I was sent to inquire whether you recieved your letter or not." said the man plainly.

"I haven't been home in a few weeks." said Dr. Clark honestly. It was true, if he wasn't sleeping in the lounge there at the hospital, he was spending the night on Holly's couch, keeping her company.

The man sat down in a nearby chair, and pulled out a letter. "Here."

Dr. Clark took the letter and tore it open, when he finished reading, his eyes were wide and his face was pale.

"What do you mean you've been _drafted_?" said Holly in shock the next morning, a beautiful Saturday morning.

"I've sort of been drafted" he corrected. "Here." said Dr. Clark holding out the letter.

She took the piece of paper and read it quickly. "There's some good news, you won't be there for very long, you're only there till they can get their normal medical team to that area." said Holly with a sigh of relief. "It even says that you should be home before a year goes by. But I wouldn't bet on it."

"I know." said Dr. Clark. "But, I don't want to abandon Harry now. I promised James, I'd look after the two of you."

Mrs. McFinn smiled sadly. "I know what you mean, I promised to James too, that I wouldn't let the Dursley's have their satanic way with him. But Harry...I think he's too depressed to come around. He keeps looking at the door when five o'clock rolls around."

I know the feeling." said Dr. Clark. "I keep waiting for him to call on Friday nights to go out for a pint."

Then the door opened, and Harry came slowly into the house.

"Hi sweetie!" said Mrs. McFinn walking over and giving the small boy a kiss on the head. "How are you doing today?"

"Mfine." mumbled Harry.

"Come here, kiddo." said Dr. Clark. "I want to talk to you."

Harry walked over to Dr. Clark, who picked him up and placed him on his lap. "I've got some bad news, buddy."

"Did those monsters get out?" asked Harry quickly.

"No, those criminals are still behind bars." said Dr. Clark. "But, in a few weeks, I'm going to have to go away for a little while."

Harry looked up Dr. Clark with tear filled eyes and his face distorted in grief, and then took off to his room, slamming the door behind him.

"That didn't go well." said Dr. Clark burying his head.

"Well, it's not either of you guy's fault." said Mrs. McFinn soothingly. "Let's give him a little time, then I'll go talk to him."

"No, I'll talk to him. I have to." said Dr. Clark sadly.

Harry was facing down into the pillow, weeping bitterly and pounding the pillows ferociously with his fists. With every pounding of the pillow, his down-filled pillow got a little wetter from the hot dears splashing down on it. He didn't even hear the door opening, or feel the bed sink slightly fromt the weight of someone else sitting on it.

He did though, feel two hands pick him up from where he laid, and while he flailed his fists into the air, the hands turned him over gently and he was laying softly in Dr. Clark's arms, like a tiny baby. And like a tiny child, he cried loudly.

"Shh...Harry, just hear me out." said Dr. Clark quietly.

"No! You're going to go away! I'm never going to see you again!" wailed Harry.

"Harry..." said Dr. Clark, his face torn with regret. "Harry, I'm not going to be gone forever, only a year. I'll be back I promise."

"I don't care!" said Harry, he began to pummel Dr. Clark chest. "I don't want you to go! I want you to stay!"

Dr. Clark allowed him to hit his chest for a short while, then he caught both of Harry's fists and looked at him in the eye.

"Do you honestly think I want to leave you?" he asked Harry running his hand over Harry's head. "I don't have a choice, if the military and the Queen needs you, you have to go."

Harry looked at him, his eyes reddened and settled against Dr. Clark's chest. Dr. Clark, thinking that Harry finally understood, held him close and rocked Harry gently back and forth.

The next day, Harry gathered up all of his allowance that he had squirreled away, made the Dursley's a slow cooker full of pot roast, and headed out of the house. He walked to the bus station, payed for a ticket to London, and rode it all the way. He sat in silence, despite several people asking him where he was heading, he only smiled and said he was fine.

When the bus finally reached London, Harry stepped off the bus and looked around, he found a street sign and took out the map that he had borrowed Mrs. McFinn's house, she didn't know that he took it, but hopefully she'd never know it was missing. A few people tried to look around, trying to find a person waiting to pick the boy up.

He saw that he was at Charing Cross Station, so he tried to find where Buckingham Palace was, luckily he found it and he would only have to go straight down the street he was on. It was perhaps only a kilometer or less, so he folded his map carefully and walked towards Buckingham Palace, the people never noticed him go. They were too busy trying to look for the unknown adult waiting for the child.

It was a little while till he arrived at the prestigious gated palace and marveled, not so much as to the size of it, but that there were so many people about. He wanted to turn away and go back home, but he thought of losing Dr. Clark the same way that he lost Officer McFinn, so he steeled all the courage in his small little body and walked up to join the throng.

A man riding a horse came cantering up to him. "Where's your parents young man?" said the man from atop his horse.

"I came to see the Queen, sir." said Harry meekly. The people who were nearby and watching the boy laughed loudly. Even the guard cracked a smile.

"Is the Queen expecting you lad?" said the guard with a smile.

"No sir. But she said I could come and see her whenever I could." said Harry meekly, he looked up and into the guard's eyes.

The guard stared at the youth's eyes and then took a piece of paper from his pocket. It was a color copy of the a picture from the Garden Party, he looked from the picture to the boy multiple times. He said in a slightly unnerved voice: "What's your name, son?"

"Harry, sir. Harry Potter." said Harry shuffling his feet.

The guard placed a hand on a small walkie-talkie, and pushed the button while holding it to his mouth. "The kid showed up, I'll bring him to the gate." he put the radio back and reached a hand down to the small boy. "Come on up, kid. I'll take you to the gate."

"Thank you sir!" said Harry with a smile.

The people standing around stared at the child in the scruffy clothes and messy hair in disbelief. _He _was allowed to see the Queen?

The guard held onto the boy as the horse galloped over to gate (partially opened) and lightly lowered Harry to the ground. "Here he is."

Harry looked up and saw the sternest man wearing a fuzzy black hat he had ever seen in his life. He turned to the man on the horse to say thank you, but he was already heading back to his post.

"Come, boy." said the guard as he marched forward. Harry hurried after the man and had to almost jog on and off to keep up with his march. The guard stopped at the door and then the door opened revealing a man in a pressed suit looking down at the boy with a sterner gaze than that of the guard.

"Follow me." said the man. Harry said a weak 'Thank you' to the retreating back of the guard and hurried after the suited man. "We don't normally allow children to just wander in off the street, you would do well to at least phone first."

"I'm not allowed to use the phone." said Harry quietly.

"Nonsense." said the man still striding off. Finally they reached a grand room, there were pictures hanging on each wall, there were few chairs in the room. Harry could hardly believe he was _inside_ Buckingham Palace.

"Wait here, please restrain from touching anything." said the man imperiously.

Harry watched as he walked away and occupied his time, looking at the beautiful works of art on the walls and the crystal fixtures on the chandilier hanging from the ceiling. He made sure to keep his hands in the pockets of his baggy pants. He wasn't too sure if he should even _breathe_ in the Palace.

"Hello there dear." said a kindly voice from behind him.

Harry turned swiftly around and saw the Queen herself walking towards him with another man in a black suit following her.

"H-hello your Majesty." stammered Harry.

"Please, have a seat dear." said the Queen sitting slowly down onto the couch opposite the draped window. "What brings you here today?"

Harry walked slowly over to the sofa and sat carefully down. "I-I-..." said Harry, stuttering slightly.

"Yes, dear?" said the Queen, gently pressuring him on.

"I wanted to ask a f-favor." said Harry. "Dr. Clark...he's gotta go somewhere, something to do with the military. I dont' want him to go. I don't want to lose him, I was hoping you'd help..." he never looked her in the eye, but just moved his foot back and forth.

The Queen looked at child with a mix of warmth and pity. She looked at the man standing beside her and asked. "Get me General Havish, on the phone or in person, it does not matter." then she leaned into the man. "And tell him to bring the file on one Dr. Clark." she added in a whisper.

The man bowed and left the room swiftly.

"I will see what I can do child." said the Queen kindly.

Over the next half hour, he and the Queen sat, sipping tea quietly and eating biscuts, though they did have some conversations, mostly about how school was going. Then another man came in, in full military attire.

"You sent for me, your Majesty?" said the man, sweeping off his hat and then bowing low.

"Yes, I would like to have a word with you." said the Queen motioning the man to take a seat. "Sebastian?"

"Yes my lady?" said a man coming out from what Harry assumed to be nowhere.

"Take Harry to the north garden, while the general and I talk." said the Queen with a smile. "He might enjoy it."

"Of course my lady." said Sebastian bowing low. He took Harry's hand into his own gloved one and led him out of the room.

"Now let us get down to business." said the Queen. "You brought the paperwork, I hope."

"Yes ma'am, though I don't know why a medical officer would attract your attention." said the general opening a file. "Yes, here we are, the only Dr. Clark we have. Dr. Samuel Clark, age thirty-nine, being granted the rank of Sergent to start with. He's being sent to Camp Excalibur in Astara Azerbaijan."

"Isn't that where you told me..." said the Queen her eyes slightly wide.

"Yes my need him there, we've suffered some casulties there, but most of our medical officers are in Iran right now. And he had the best record in his region. Good emergency surgical prowess, knows when to ask for help, and has a perfect references, except for one person, but that has been dismissed."

"Is there a way I could grant him a pardon, to get him out of military service?" said the Queen, trying not to show her eagerness.

"It's not advisable, one doctor could save a dozen lives. We're hurting for good doctors as it is." said the general.

"Is there a way to cut his service length?" said the Queen.

"Why does this man mean so much to you, your Majesty?" asked the General curiously.

"It's not for me, it's for that boy. I've grown to be very fond of this boy. He's already lost the closest thing to a father, that poor boy. Taking away this doctor will be too much."

The general looked unmoved until he saw a faint look of pity in her eyes.

"I'll see what I can do, but he'll still have to go and stay for at least ten months." said the general solemnly.

"I guess that will do." said the Queen nodding slowly. "I appreciate you coming."

"Anything within my power for you, your Majesty." said the general standing and bowing low.

Some time later, Harry came back to the room and nervously sat beside the Queen.

"I did my best child, but your Dr. Clark will have to go and serve our country for a short while. Hopefully no more than ten months." said the Queen sorrowfully.

Harry looked down at his knees. "Thank you for trying, your Majesty, it means a lot."

"I only wish I could have done more, dear child." said the Queen.

"You've done a lot already, thank you." said Harry.

"Allow me to give you a ride home. I'll have one of my drivers take you back to Little Whinging." said the Queen.

"Thank you ma'am." said Harry politely.

"I think a limo ride would brighten your spirits slightly." said the Queen kindly, "I'll have my best driver take you home."

An hour and a half later, the Queen's driver pulled into Little Whinging.

"Where bout's lad?" said the driver looking sideways at Harry.

"Straight down to the school, turn right and then three blocks down." recited Harry.

"Okay." said the driver with a smile. "I know of a ice cream shop down a bit further, want to stop?"

"You don't have to sir." said Harry quickly. "I don't want to spoil the Queen's nice clean car."

"Nonsense, I'd kill for a Fudge Ripple cone right now." said the driver kindly.

When the driver pulled up to the ice cream shop, he couldn't worm a preference out of Harry, who merely sat in the front seat and blushed. So he went in and came out with a two large cones, one Fudge Ripple, and another was a Chocolate and Banana cone.

"There you go kid." said the driver with a smile. "We'll take off the moment I polish off mine." he said with a large lick on his own cone.

"T-thank you sir." said Harry licking the top flavor, chocolate, before it could drip onto the seat.

"Careful you'll...nevermind." said the driver with a chuckle as Harry smacked a hand to head, due to a brainfreeze.

Soon after, they pulled up to Mrs. McFinn's house.

"Thank you." said Harry once again.

"You're welcome, you're a pretty brave kid to go all the way to London by yourself." said the man with a smile.

Harry blushed.

"Harry!" said Mrs. McFinn coming out of her house, right behind a lady carrying a box, which no doubt held a cake. "What are you doing?"

"He took a trip to London miss." said the driver stepping out of the limo and smiling. Harry looked down at the ground.

"What?" said Mrs. McFinn in shock.

"Went to go visit the Queen." said the driver with a smile "She and he had a nice chat and she told me to give him a lift home." then he looked down at Harry. "Here's my number, next time you want to come and visit her Majesty, just give me a call, I'll come and pick you up. Miss." he tipped his hat to Mrs. McFinn after he handed Harry a card. He climbed back into his limo and drove off.

"Harry...get in the house...now." said Mrs. McFinn, her voice cracking.

Harry was afraid of this. He slowly made his way into the house and sat rigidly on the sofa. Mrs. McFinn was close behind him and sat down on the couch as well.

"What were you thinking? You could have been lost, kidnapped or worse, going off to London on your own!" said Mrs. McFinn firmly.

Harry said nothing but continued to look down.

"What could be so important that you'd go to London on your own for?" said Mrs. McFinn continuing her lecture.

"Dr. Clark." said Harry quietly.

"What?" said Mrs. McFinn, she almost didn't hear him.

"I asked the Queen if Dr. Clark could not go into the military. He has to, but she promised that he wouldn't stay much longer than ten months." said Harry quickly.

"Oh Harry..." said Mrs. McFinn covering her mouth. "I'm sorry sweetie, I didn't know that he was the reason. But regardless, you shouldn't have gone anywhere without an adult. You could've gotten hurt." said Mrs. McFinn. "Though I do admire you for what you did, you young man are going to stand in the time out corner for seven minutes." She picked up Harry and placed his feeet firmly in the corner that he had graced so many times before for his misbehaviour.

When his seven minutes were up, he went into the kitchen and sat on one of the kitchen stools and watched Mrs. McFinn bake cookies.

"I'm sorry I went to London without telling anyone." said Harry sadly.

"I'm glad you said that." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile. "Next time you want to go somewhere, you tell me, don't just take off and I'll take you. And you ask if you want to head to London again."

"Yes ma'am." said Harry.

"I don't want to loose you too." said Mrs. McFinn, she hurried around the counter and picked up Harry into a large hug.

"I'm sorry." said Harry as tears fell freely down his small face.

Later that day, after Harry headed home, Mrs. McFinn called Dr. Clark.

"You wouldn't believe what that little scamp did today." said Mrs. McFinn on the phone.

"What did he do now?" asked Dr. Clark, she could tell he was smiling.

"He went to London and met with the Queen." said Mrs. McFinn.

"What on earth for?" said Dr. Clark after a moment of silence.

"He went to see if she could pardon you from going into the military. She couldn't wrangle it, but you won't be there longer than ten months." said Mrs. McFinn excitedly.

"That little..." said Dr. Clark, on his end, he wiped a tear away.

"We told you that he loved you." said Mrs. McFinn.

"I didn't know he'd ask the _Queen_ for a favor!" said Dr. Clark in shock. "Kid's got guts, more than the entire country put together. And you'd never figure, with how quiet he is."

"I just thought I'd let you know." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Just think, some guys have higher ranked people on their side, I've the bloody Queen on my side!" said Dr. Clark with a laugh.

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**Thank you for reading! Please review!**

**Question of the Chapter! **_**What is your favorite Ice Cream Flavor?**_


	19. Chapter 19 The Farewell Party

**New Chapter! Happy Belated Thanksgiving!**

**Question of the Chapter: **_**What's your favorite Ice Cream flavor?**_

**The Submarauder: Strawberry ice cream, as long as it doesn't have bits in it. But typically, you can't get strawberry ice cream anymore.**

**I like strawberry ice cream on it's own too. I like chocolate and banana ice cream, though I can only get it at Cold Stone Creamery.**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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School had finished and Harry was forced to spend more time at the Dursleys now that Officer McFinn had passed away. In order for Aunt Petunia to let him go to Mrs. McFinn's house, he had to finish with all the chores around the house and that list continued to grow and grow. He had to weed the garden, water the garden, make breakfast, make lunch, vaccum the rugs, wash the windows, wash the dishes, polish the silver and anything else that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would come up it.

Harry had to work quickly and efficiently in order to get over to her house at a decent time and not have to turn right around and head back home. Uncle Vernon still insisted that Harry be home so he could prepare dinner. Slow cooker meals were barely acceptable, Uncle Vernon wanted fresh cooked meals.

One day, Mrs. McFinn found out a little bit of what all Harry had to do, just to come and visit her. And she wasn't happy about it.

"I'm in the kitchen, Harry." said Mrs. McFinn as she heard Harry call out to her.

Harry made his way into the kitchen as she was baking cookies. Today was an exceedingly long and hot day. And Mrs. McFinn's air conditioned house was a welcoming relief. His clothes were stained with sweat and dirt from the Dursley's lawn and every muscle in his body began to ache.

There was a heat advisory out, but that didn't stop Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia from having him mow the lawn and then weed the garden. The only relief he got was when he was watering the lawn, while Dudley stayed in the house (it was too hot for their Dinky Duddykins to go out) and laughed at Harry weeding the gardne as he himself licked a large chocolate cone. When no one from inside the house was watching, he'd turn the hose on himself and spray water on his face and body.

Mrs. McFinn turned to face him and wiped her hands on her apron. "Sweetheart, you're covered in dirt and are all sweaty! Why don't you go and take a nice bath, I'll wash your clothes."

"Thanks Miss Holly." said Harry with a bright smile, not even the grime on his face could dampen the brightness of his happy smile.

She led him into the bathroom and grabbed him some towels. "Do you want to take a shower or bath?" said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

"Can I take a bath? I'm kinda sore." said Harry shifting his shoulders slowly.

"Sore from doing what?" said Mrs. McFinn.

"I had a lot of chores to do today. Most of it outside stuff." said Harry stretching his sore arms.

Mrs. McFinn stared at him hard, but allowed him to peel off his sweaty, filthy clothes, and climbed into the tub full of cool water and bubbles. She thought to herself that the Dursleys should know better than to do outside work today, people on the radio and telly were advising people not to wander outside unless they absolutely have to. Even children were advised to stay inside and play today.

"You sure you want a cold bath, honey?" asked Mrs. McFinn. She feared the cold water would shock his system.

"I've been really hot all day." said Harry softly."I want to cool down."

"Alright dear." she said with a smile. She left so he could take off his muddy trousers and then his undergarments. He slowly lowered himself into the slightly cool, bubble infested water and sighed as his body touched the bottom of the bath. The water wasn't as deep as he would have liked, but it never was and he could understand that. He didn't want Mrs. McFinn to have to check on him every three seconds to make sure he didn't drown.

Mrs. McFinn came back in, "I'll take the rest of your things and leave the door propped open a little bit. You just relax sweetie."

"Okay." said Harry, he closed his eyes and leaned back into the tub.

Ten minutes later, Mrs. McFinn peeked her head in the door and saw, with a doting smile, that Harry had fallen asleep in the tub, his head laid back on the edge of it. She reached in drained the tub, wrapped Harry up in a large towel and carried him (she still couldn't believe he was so light) and placed him in his bed.

Then the door opened and Dr. Clark came in. "Hey Holly." he said dropping his coat onto a chair.

"Shh." said Mrs. McFinn with a finger to her lips.

"What's up?" asked Dr. Clark.

"Harry's sleeping." said Mrs. McFinn.

"Ah." said Dr. Clark. "Well, I got my departure date, it's next month on the twentieth."

Mrs. McFinn's face fell, but it brightened slightly. "We'll throw a party for you, Harry and I."

"That sounds good." said Dr. Clark.

"You'll have to wear the military uniform you got, to make it proper." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile.

"Will Harry like it though?" said Dr. Clark sadly.

"Oh, oh dear." said Mrs. McFinn she looked worried.

"He should be fine." said Dr. Clark answering his own question with an uncertain smile.

"You invite whomever you want. Harry and I will take care of everything." said Mrs. McFinn.

Weeks later, Harry and Mrs. McFinn were both walking up and down a large supermarket adding different things to their shopping cart.

"Have you decided what you're going to make for Dr. Clark's party, Harry?" said Mrs. McFinn as she placed a few onions on a scale. "You know how he simply adores your cooking."

"I thought I'd make him a pizza." said Harry quietly as he loaded some garlic and tomatoes on another scale. He wasn't looking forward to the party, knowing full well that he would lose Dr. Clark for a long time soon after that. He wanted Dr. Clark to stay, and cheer him on for the Junior Track Championships in a few weeks. Dr. Clark would miss it, and he really wanted him to be there.

"Oh, he'll love that." said Mrs. McFinn trying to brighten the sullen boy's spirits.

They spent the entire day picking up different ingredients and different party supplies. Harry dragged his feet slightly. He had half a mind to go to the Queen and ask her to let Dr. Clark stay in England a little while longer, but he already asked her for a favor. The Queen herself helped arrange and reassured the boy that he wasn't gong to be there all that long. But Harry had a very bad feeling.

At the Dursleys, Harry was still thinking deeply about Dr. Clark. He was barely focusing on the preparation on the pork loin roast he was supposed to make for the Dursleys. Without thinking, he added almost a whole cup of maple syrup to the sauce!

"Oh, no!" said Harry frantically. He looked frantically around in panic, but suddenly he stopped. "Maybe..."

He hopped off the stool and hurried around the kitchen gathering up two different things he didn't think he'd use on the roast.

"Let's see, a bit of catsup, and then some garlic." said Harry to himself. He stirred the two things into the sauce and brought a tiny spoonful to his small lips. He smacked them together, and closed his eyes.

"Needs a little salt." Harry said to himself, he grabbed a small pinch of salt from the open salt shaker and sprinkled over it. He stirred it a bit more and gave it another taste.

He picked the maple syrup bottle and gave it a slight squeeze and dropped a small amount into the sauce.

"And to think I just did that on purpose." said Harry with a smile.

An hour later, Harry placed all the food on the table and finished pouring his aunt and uncle's wine glasses full of Pinot Noir.

"Alright boy." snarled Uncle Vernon. That was the signal that he didn't want to use any more of his expensive wine and to go and put it back in the wine cupboard.

"Why does this pork taste sweet?" asked Dudley.

"It's a Maple glaze." said Harry meekly.

"Hmm." said Uncle Vernon as he tried not to show his pleasure from the taste of the dish, last thing he wanted to do was show the boy any sort of praise. Aunt Petunia kept a straight face as she ate her meal, nothing was new about that, she held a deep jealously towards her young nephew. He had the family talent for cooking, her mother was a superb cook but neither of the girls had the talent in the kitchen like she did. Her mother was the talk of every garden party with her tasty party treats and desserts. It seemed that the talent skipped over the daughters and fell solely into the boy.

And she hated him for it.

Suddenly Dudley howled loudly and knocked the table completley over. Everything that was on the table, the wine glasses full of wine, the plates and bowls full of food were now covering and staining the carpeted floor. Harry couldn't even save his meager meal from being splattered across the floor.

"OW!" shouted Dudley clutching the side of his face all the while kicking and punching the air.

"Oh Duddy! What's wrong?" said Aunt Petunia hurling herself over to son. she had to dodge a flailing fists thrown at her.

"My mouth hurts!" he wailed, as he kicked the underside of the table.

"Here Duddy, let me see." said Uncle Vernon trying to pry his son's mouth open, but recived a blow in the eye in return.

"I know a Dentist that works late, Vernon. Let's take him." said Aunt Petunia to her husband as he covered his eye. She turned swiftly over to Harry. "Pick that mess up, and don't you dare eat anything, this is all your fault."

She ushed Dudley over to the front door while her husband glared fiercely over to the boy picking up the stray silverware and broken glass, one of his eyes were shut and turning slowly purple. "You'd better be grateful that I'm not going to punish you right now."

"Yes sir." said Harry, his voice frightened.

The Dursley's piled into their car and left Harry to clean up the mess that Dudley had caused and he was blamed for. His stomach growled, he hadn't had anything to eat since that morning and a slice of apple pie at Miss Holly's. Harry looked at the pork roast down at the floor hungrily.

If he was going to have to throw it all away anyway...

The Dursleys came back an hour and a half later, Dudley was sporting a new filling, and was scheduled to have a few more. The Dentist told him to slow down on the fizzy drinks and the sweets, but Dudley knew that with a constant barrage of temper tantrums he wouldn't have to give up his favorite things.

They came inside the house and immediately they went to dining room and saw that the mess was completely gone and even the carpet was shampooed and thoroughly cleaned. Aunt Petunia looked closely around the room, looking for any stains, but she was disappointed, she found none. Uncle Vernon pressed his ear to the cupboard door and and heard his nephew's gentle breathing as he slept.

"The boy's in his cupboard." said Uncle Vernon. "I'll check and make sure that he didnt't raid the fridge." He went to the kitchen and checked the icebox thoroughly. "He didn't, good thing too, I'm not in the mood to be disobeyed." he growled.

Harry sat in his cupboard and waited for the Dursley's to go to bed. He had pretended to be asleep when he could feel Uncle Vernon stop by his little door. After he could hear them all go upstairs to bed, he finished licking the maple syrup sauce from his fingers. He had never eaten so much at the Dursleys before.

He had munched greedily on the food that was laying on the floor. He carefully picked the carpet fuzz off the pieces of meat and the boiled potatoes, and continued on with his personal feast. Despite the food being on the floor, the Dursleys didnt' know what they were missing. He had to remember that recipe, Miss Holly would love it.

Back in the cupboard, Harry licked his lips and fell asleep, with the first real full stomach he had in a while, he reached under his pillow and brought out his thick, white notebook. Inside were countless recipes and facts on different things, ranging from animal facts to physics.

After he wrote the recipe down for the maple pork roast, he put the book under his pillow and fell asleep.

A few days later, it was the morning of Dr. Clark's party. For a terrible moment, Harry thought that he wouldn't be able to go and help Mrs. McFinn and Dr. Clark with the party preparation.

Uncle Vernon was on the warpath, with all of Dudley's tantrums and being constantly hit with a barrage of his son's fat fists. His mood was not it's best. And that meant ill will for Harry's physical being.

"You're staying here! No more running off with...!" he shouted, but he was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. He stomped over to the door and shouted "What do _you_ want?" shouted Uncle Vernon.

He faltered quickly when he saw Dr. Clark. "I came to pick up Harry." he said with a stern look. Harry quickly darted under Uncle Vernon's arms and ran to hide behind Dr. Clark. "Go wait in the car buddy." said Dr. Clark, after Harry ran to sit in the car, Dr. Clark turned and scowled at Vernon.

"Just because James is gone, doesn't mean you can hurt him. I'm keeping an eye on him, and _you._" said Dr. Clark. He didn't want to mention that he wasn't going to be around for a while. He and Harry agreed to only tell the Dursleys that it was Dr. Clark's birthday party and nothing more. Vernon turned a pale shade of opaque and then slammed the door shut.

Harry sat patiently in the car and waited for Dr. Clark to come back.

Dr. Clark climbed into the car with a smile. "I got him to agree to let you stay the night at Holly's."

"Really?" asked Harry happily.

"Yep. That way you don't have to leave the party early." said Dr. Clark.

Over the next few hours they worked tirelessly to get the party just right, all Dr. Clark had to do was reach the things that they couldn't. Like stringing up most of the decorations. He easily set up the large banner across the southern most wall. "COME HOME SOON!"

"The guests will be here soon, why don't you get dressed?" said Mrs. McFinn. Harry looked at him curiously. "He's got a special uniform that military personel wear for special occassions." she explained to his curious expression.

"Oh, are you really going to wear it?" said Harry with a smile.

"Yeah, I hope I don't soil it." said Dr. Clark.

"Whatever you spill on it, I can clean it. I've lived with a messy roommate for a long time." said Mrs. McFinn with a bright smile, though her smile faded slightly.

Dr. Clark walked into the bathroom and took a large suitcase with him. after a short while, Dr. Clark came back out, in full ceremonial military apparel.

"You look so brave." said Mrs. McFinn giving Dr. Clark a kiss on the cheek. Harry ran up to him and leapt into his arms and held onto the man tightly.

"It'll be okay, it won't be all that long, and then I'll come back, I promise." said Dr. Clark with a reassuring smile.

A doorbell rang and Mrs. McFinn dried her eyes quickly on her apron. "That'll be the guests, I'll go let them in." Dr. Clark kept hanging onto Harry and didn't put him down until finally Harry said he needed to make his treat.

A half hour later, Mrs. McFinn was walking around with a tray of drinks, people were walking around the living room and talked to each other. There were children running about, playing tag around the adult's legs, a few girls tried to drag Harry out of the kitchen so he could go and play with them. But Harry stayed fast to the stove, waiting for his creation to finish baking.

A while later Harry came out with a freshly baked pizza. People turned to look at Harry and then they noticed the pizza.

It was a very large pizza, with a golden crust. It's cheese was still bubbling a little bit and steam rose languidly from the pizza.

"That is one tasty looking pizza, Harry! I've never a pizza with actual meatballs on it though, what do you call it?" said Dr. Clark, throwing an arm around Harry's shoulders and kneeling beside Harry's side.

"Italian Night Pizza," said Harry quietly, he didn't look as happy as some of the other people. "It's got meatballs, pepperoni, mozzarella, parmesan, and asiago cheese, marinara sauce drizzled on top." said Harry just as quietly as before.

"How can this kid cook something that looks that good? Or did he just bring it out and Holly made it?" asked one of the guests.

"It's all Harry." said Dr. Clark proudly.

Dr. Clark took a slice of the pizza and smiled broadly as the cheese stringed itself between the liberated slice and the rest of pizza that was woefully left behind.

"Looks like the pizza's you see on television commercials." said one of the partiers excitedly.

Harry moved away from the table of food and went to go sit on the sofa. Dr. Clark noticed this and went to go sit on the sofa with him, he continued feasting on the slice of pizza.

"What's up, bud?" asked Dr. Clark. "Normally you're prouder than a peacock when you bring out something you cook."

Harry, leaning back into the sofa, heaved a sigh, "Now you're going away, Officer McFinn is gone, now you are going away too." tears began to form in his eyes. His thoughts were plagued with that terrible idea. Nothing anyone could say would take his fears away.

Dr. Clark put the pizza down on the nearby table and brought him into a large hug. "I won't be gone for long. I'm just going to be gone till they get more doctor's in the area, I'm going to. I'm only going to be gone for few short months, I promise, I'll come home, if wer're lucky I'll be back by Christmas or a little after."

Harry sniffled quietly, but stayed with Dr. Clark on the couch, people came over to talk to Dr. Clark. Dr. Clark wouldn't leave Harry's side, not even when Harry fell asleep on his lap. After a while Dr. Clark stood up and carried Harry into the boy's bedroom, shooing the kids that had nested themselves in there, playing with Harry's toys.

"Come on out. Harry's going to bed." said Dr. Clark with a faint smile.

"Why is he going to bed so early? Was he bad?" asked a little girl innocently.

"No, he's just tired." said Dr. Clark.

He gently lowered Harry down on his fluffy bed and covered him up. He kissed the boy's head and slowly closed the door.

"I love you Harry." he said softly.

* * *

**I know I changed a few things, in my original story I had Dr. Clark gone for about a year, but I felt that was a bit too long. So I shortened it.**

**Thanks for reading! Please Review**

**Question of the Chapter: **_**If you went Black Friday shopping (at any time), what was the most exciting thing?**_

**For those who didn't go...**_**What is your favorite pizza topping? **_

**If you've read my first story, you'll know what is coming, and a lot of people liked that. I do too for that fact, I can't wait!**


	20. Chapter 20 Moving on Without Guidance

**Aww, no one went Black Friday Shopping, oh well, **

_**Favorite Pizza topping**_**: gylden rev= Pepperoni, ****though my best loved pizza was peperoni and ground beef. sadly the ones who made it, their store closed down not long after they opened.**

**That's sad, all the good places shut down or change everything completely.**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

It was several months since the party and Harry's lot in life hadn't improved. Somehow, Uncle Vernon discovered that Dr. Clark had left the country and to punish Harry for not telling him, things almost went back to the way it was.

He was only allowed to see Mrs. McFinn after school and never on the weekends, unless the Dursley's had guests over. After his first "punishment" with Uncle Vernon, Uncle Vernon pulled his hair so that Harry's neck was craned back and he had to look at Uncle Vernon through tear filled eyes.

"You do a repeat of last year, and I'll make you wish you were never born, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon, spit flew and fell onto Harry's face. He tossed Harry unceremoniously into the cupboard and walked off. Harry sat up on his bed and clutched his ribs.

"You're too late, Uncle Vernon." gasped Harry.

Harry walked slowly to school, his chest heavily bruised, but what he thought were breaks turned out to nothing more than just deep bruises. Sometimes his body made no medical sense whatsoever. Due to his chest injuries,

Harry refrained from doing anything strenous in Gym class and was intensely relieved that the Junior Track Races had come and gone. While Dr. Clark was still in the country, Harry ran and trained as hard as he could just so he could make him and Officer McFinn proud.

The day after Dr. Clark left for his military duty, was race day. Harry went to the track, but unlike all the other children, he wasn't smiling. Mrs. McFinn was Harry's only pillar of support, but she did a brilliant job, and Harry loved her for it.

She made his favorite snacks, brought ice cold water and remembered to bring a towel, and it was the same towel from last year. She kept track of Harry's laps and cheered loudly for him while he was running and kissed him when he won.

The older runners noticed that when Harry went to run in the final heats, his eyes and cheeks burned with tears. And his running speed seemed to have increased as well. The parents who noticed this smiled and felt pity and sympathy for him, but their children that had been in the races last year remembered his speed and wins. They had no reason to give him a break.

And Harry wouldn't have it any other way. He wanted to win again this year, not just to test his speed, but to win for Officer McFinn, and Dr. Clark. Every time that he came to the line to start a race, his breath would slow and his eyes seemed to focus squarely on the finish line.

After all the races were over, he climbed into Mrs. McFinn car with his neck heavy gilded with the ribbons and medals he had won. He had to work even harder to earn his medals.

"I'm so proud of you, honey!" said Mrs. McFinn with a bright smile. "You won everything! Just like last year!"

"Miss Holly?" asked Harry quietly.

"What is it dear?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Can we stop by...where Officer McFinn is? I wanna...I wanna give him something." said Harry.

Mrs. McFinn nearly stopped the car right in the middle of an intersection. "O-Of course honey." she said with tears in her eyes. "We can do that."

She drove over to the calm cemetary and they both walked hand in hand over to the tombstone that marked the greatest man Mrs. McFinn knew and Harry could remember.

Harry took his Track Champion medal off his neck and kneeled in front of the gravestone and with his fingers, he dug a small hole in the ground.

"What are you doing, Harry?" asked Mrs. McFinn as she watched him gently place the medal in the hole he made.

"I wanted Officer McFinn to have it." said Harry as he placed the dirt carefully back.

"I'm sure he loves it." said Mrs. McFinn with sweet smile as she went to kneel beside him.

"Mrs. McFinn?" said Harry.

"What is it honey?" asked Mrs. McFinn after she kissed her fingers and placed them on the stone.

"Is there a heaven?" asked Harry.

"Yes dear, there is. James is there right now." said Mrs. McFinn with a fond smile.

"And there's a God? And he rewards good people and punishes bad people?" asked Harry quickly.

"Yes dear." said Mrs. McFinn, unsure of where he was going with this conversation.

"Then what did I do, that was so bad?" asked Harry, tears falling down his face.

Mrs. McFinn looked at Harry in shock. "Oh, sweetie, you didn't do anything wrong. Things just happen, and there's nothing we can do to change that."

"There's nothing I can do to make it any easier?" asked Harry, he didn't want to hear the answer.

"We can only do our best, Harry. To make the best of what we can." said Mrs. McFinn.

"But I thought you said..." said Harry.

"I know, dear, but...it's just.." said Mrs. McFinn at a loss for words.

Harry shook his head, his thoughts coming back to him as he sat in the classroom. She never did give him an answer, it didn't really bother him, but it did slightly confuse him. He read the bible several times, and he figured that it had to be the work of the devil that kept causing him so much hardships. But why did the devil decide to harm only him? As far as Harry knew, no other person, at least in the neighborhood, had to live like he did. What did he do that was so wrong? He couldn't figure it out.

He sat at his desk quietly during recess, calmly reading a few books he had checked out from the library. It was a book on medicine. Harry figured that if he could take care of his own wounds then that would solve a lot of his problems. Mrs. McFinn would never know and he could continue on without as much beatings.

"Mr. Potter?" said a voice from the front of the room. Harry looked up and saw his teacher gathering up some papers.

"Yes, Mr. Doppler?" asked Harry.

"It's lunch time, they're serving mini-Sheperd's Pies, better hurry if you don't want to miss it." said the man with a smile.

"Thank you sir." said Harry. He stood up carefully and walked out of the room.

The teacher watched him leave the classroom, he hadn't been there for very long, it was his first term and being around children was a new experience for him. He was learning how to handle kids again, but he was much more at home with dealing hardened criminals and hunting down terrorists and drug kingpins and warlords.

He closed the door to his classroom, making doubly sure there was no one about. He touched the side of his glasses and immediately a small metal antennae came down to his mouth.

"Captain Lionus?" said the teacher quietly.

"What is it?" said a voice speaking clearly into the man's ear.

"Nothing to report today, the students are being taught what they should be, nothing harmful but plenty of room for growth at a safe pace." said the teacher, his tone switching from the soft tone he used on Harry to a stern one.

"Good, and Dr. Nicodemus' pet project? How's he fairing?" asked the mysterious Captian Lionus.

"He's a top student, but he doesn't exceed in a public way, he mostly sticks to getting A's on tests or in class homework. Today however, he's in some pain, must have had another tumble with his uncle again. The evidence is there for anyone to see, yet the courts and the teachers here won't take any action." said the teacher.

"Why won't the teachers get involved?" asked Captain Lionus.

"That's just it, they don't want to." said the teacher. "They seem to be preoccupied with trying to keep the boy's cousin, Dudley from bullying the other students."

"Then they shouldn't be teachers." the teacher heard Captain Lionus mutter.

"Don't I know it. But the boy is doing his absolute best to make through it. I caught him reading a medical book." said Mr. Doppler. "Not just any medical book either, its an older book, on how they healed people without the use of modern methods. This kid is way to self-efficiant for an eight year old in this civilized country."

Captiain Lionus said nothing.

"Request permission to take the boy into protective custody." said the teacher.

"Request denied." said Captain Lionus with a sigh.

"What?" said Mr. Doppler.

"Chief's orders. If the evidence is there, and if there is one person that knows the truth besides the victim and is a person who can help change it. We do not interfere." said the man heavily.

"Does he not care about a child's life?" asked Mr. Doppler.

"Of course he does, but you know as well as I do that we cannot just go and save everyone. If we do that, these pathetic idiots won't be able to solve their own problems. We're Rangers, not nursemaids." said Captain Lionus shortly.

"I realize that sir..." said Mr. Doppler. "But this child, from what the reports say...doesn't he deserve some happiness, hasn't he earned it?"

There was a silence on the other end of the transmitter. "I'll give you permission to speak to the family, as a teacher. Nothing more. One time, if you cannot reason with the man..."

"I understand, I'll give the children a assesment test, and use that as a pretext to speak with the family." said Mr. Doppler.

"Alright, but remember, you have one shot, no deviating from your cover." said Captain Lionus.

Somewhere deep in the upper part of Scotland, hidden by large peaks on either side, sat a large castle, a blonde haired man placed a long finger down on a button and the man he had just been conversing with had been dismissed. He picked up a thin folder labled _HJ Potter_.

He opened the folder and several pictures, x-rays, and a few reports. He saw one picture of Harry lying in the hospital, with all the tubes and IVs still hooked up.

"By all rights, kid, you should be dead. Doc was right, your core must be working overtime to keep you safe." said Captain Lionus thoughtfully.

Then he reached over and picked up another file, this one was infinitely thicker.

_APWB Dumbledore_.

He used to know this man's portfolio like the back of his hand, but it had been ten years since he last looked at it, and obviously, it had been updated. He thumbed through it slowly, reading every word carefully. Finally he got to the list of uncommon spells he'd use on certain days. He turned to that fateful day, the day that made the Potter name even more famous than before.

"So you used a blood ward spell, that night. No wonder nobody is rushing to save him." said Lionus with a frown. "It protects him from magical harm, but non-magical, he's a sitting duck. Wait a minute, he used a healing spell there?" he looked at the date, "This was only two years ago."

He continued to look down the list, but that was the last time Dumbledore used a spell there. He checked the blood ward readings, but saw that, that was the last time he showed up there. His aura would fleetingly appear at a house down the street.

"So he has a neighbor checking on the kid." He read the name, then he stood up and walked over to a large globe standing in the middle of the room. He tapped the area of Great Britain and a shimmering screen appeared in midair, on the screen showed a large version of Great Britain.

"Arabella Figg." said Lionus.

The map of Britain zoomed in until he saw a aerial veiw of Privet Drive and the surrounding streets. A house was highlighted and the picture of Mrs. Figg came up on the screen. Then a list of information was posted to the left of her picture.

"Squib, huh? No wonder the Ministry of Magic doesn't say anything about a wizard or witch in the near vacinity. So Dumbledore checks that way, doesn't have to stop his precious work and he can keep a close eye on the kid ." he said with as sneer. He tapped the globe again and the screen faded away.

"That kid would have been better off with a magical family, despite the dangers. But then again, maybe that old man has a reason that I don't quite fathom."

Harry walked slowly home after school the next day and stopped suddenly a few doors down from the Dursley house. Harry saw his and Dudley's teacher go into the Dursley's house and instinctively went to Mrs. McFinn's house. She was delighted to see him, especially since she had to do three dozen cupcakes and she could use the help in decorating.

After an hour, Mrs. Mcfinn placed the cover on the final batch. "Well, that's all done. Do you want a ride home?" she asked Harry.

"I don't know if my teacher is gone from the house yet." said Harry quietly.

"Well then, let's order dinner. I don't want to cook tonight and the kitchen's a disaster, I'll order some pizza." she said with a smile.

It wasn't long till the delievery man came to the house and dropped off the pepperoni and sausage pizza.

"It's been a long time since you had dinner over here." said Mrs. McFinn with a fond smile.

"I wish I could do it more often." said Harry.

After dinner, Harry walked back to the Dursley's house. Harry noticed that the teacher's car was gone, but Harry noticed that, though it had just started to rain, there was a dry space on the side of the road, where Harry saw the teacher's car parked.

_He just left then_. thought Harry to himself. Whether Officer McFinn was gone or not, he wasn't going to stop his observation training.

He walked into the house tenatively. He scurried into the kitchen and decided to make the quickest meal he could with the ingredients he had on hand.

"BOY! GET IN HERE!" shouted Uncle Vernon.

Harry flinched horribly and then he walked shakily into the sitting room.

Uncle Vernon was standing beside the fireplace looking fiercely at his small nephew.

"Y-Yes Uncle Vernon?" said Harry.

"According to your teacher, boy, you scored pretty well on that assestment. Dudley didn't do too well." he said with a scowl. "Wanted to make Dudley look bad did you?"

Harry shrunk agianst the door.

An hour later, he laid huddled in the cupboard, the beating wasn't as bad as it was yesterday, Uncle Vernon wasn't as angry as he was the other night, but still, Uncle Vernon had a standard beating, and this was far below it. In fact, Harry hardly felt it at all. Sure he had a few bruises and quite a bit more cuts, but this was nothing! What had Uncle Vernon so scared that he didn't hurt him as much anymore? It had to be someone impressive, Officer McFinn scared Uncle Vernon so badly that he didn't even raise his hand to Harry. This guy wasn't as scary as Officer McFinn, but it was enough to make Harry's life a lot easier.

It couldn't be his teacher, that guy didn't look all that strong, he was smart as paint though. Perhaps he used trickery to get Uncle Vernon to ease off, if so, he'd have to thank him.

In a solitary house about five miles away, Mr. Doppler stood in his shower and washed away the nervousness that took hold of him. He steadied himself as the hot water cascaded down on him. "I hope the Captain doesn't find out that I lost my cool with them."

"Too late."

The man swung open his shower curtain, the nails of his hands elongated and as sharp as knives, a strange green liquid dripping from the cuticles. His eyes were narrowed, almost cat-like but they widened when he saw who the man was.

The man was calmly sitting on the toilet lid, reading the book that was on the back.

"_War and Peace_?" said the man with a smirk. "Thank god you don't share this house with anyone else, they'd never see the inside of this room."

"Captain Lionus! S-Sir!" said Mr. Doppler in shock, he looked down and quickly covered himself. His nails immediately retracted and the green liquid gone.

"So you lost your temper with them?" said Lionus, placing the book back gently.

"I-I...Yes sir." said Mr. Doppler. "You should have been there! They didn't care one iota about the boy! I walked past a cupboard, it was right beneath their stairs, it smelled just like the boy." he said in a fierce voice. "It had another scent."

"And that scent would be?' said Lionus crossing his leg.

"Blood, dried blood." said Mr. Doppler throwing his clothes on.

Lionus stood up and led Mr. Doppler out of the bathroom and headed into the kitchen, where a tea kettle was just beginning to sing. "No wonder you flipped. Well, I guess I can't fault you very much then, good thing I didn't send Nightstrike or Viper. Both of them would attack and kill the Dursley's and in Viper's case the blood would have been licked up and the boy would have been Viper's next meal."

"Too bad you didn't put Nightstrike on duty, he'd of taken care of those filthy..." said Mr. Doppler.

"Don't go there, I don't want to remove you for personal conflict. You're the best person to handle the educational assesment." said Lionus with a smile.

Mr. Doppler gave a slight smile.

"You are to finish the assesment and to return to headquarters, there you will meet with other Rangers and give your report. Each country's representative will meet and then the world's education will be mediated. I hope we don't have to excel too much again, that was embarrassing. I swear, Samurai does it just to annoy me."

"I don't think Captain Samurai..." said Mr. Doppler with a smirk.

"You don't know him like I do." said Lionus with a laugh.

"Back to the kid though." said Mr. Doppler.

"I think, if you lost your cool the way I think, you may have lessened the abuse considerably." said Lionus pouring himself a cup of tea.

"I still would like to keep an eye on him." said Mr. Doppler.

"You have a year to do so." said Lionus. "After that, he's on his own."

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**Thanks for Reading! Please Review!**

**Okay, Question of the Chapter!: **_**What was your favorite place you took a guided tour at, or self guided tour?**_

**I worked as a tour guide at a cavern once. It was beautiful, but the owner was a bit nuts. Everywhere else I've gone on self-guided tours. **


	21. Chapter 21 How Blue Can One Get

**Okay! New week! New chapter! **

**Last week's Question: What was your favorite place you took a guided tour in? Or self-guided tour?**

**I had two people say Carlsbad Caverns. I love the beauty of some caverns. The place I worked in was called Kickapoo Indian Caverns. The tour only took an hour, half hour inward, half hour outward. There are some points about the cavern that I miss, the beauty of some of the natural wonders, the meeting of different people from all over, and the bats. I miss the bats. **

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Over the course of the next few weeks, Uncle Vernon's beatings got less and less frequent until they were almost nonexistent and Harry was grateful for it. He thanked his teacher for stopping over that night, he didn't want to appear over gracious or he thought the teacher would be suspicious.

"Not at all, I just wanted to tell your guardians that you had one of the highest tests marks." lied Mr. Doppler with a kind smile. He could see the relief in the boy's face and he was happy to see it. It was worth the smack down his Captain gave him later that night.

Harry liked Mr. Doppler, though at times he did find him a bit strange. He caught this man in the gym after school one day leaping and running all over the place, like he was getting ready to go through an obstacle course.

Harry couldn't help but feel impressed as he watched his...mild-mannered teacher do such strenuous feats, like some of those ninja shows he saw Dudley watching.

After his teacher had left, he tried his hand at a few leaps and bounds, but he kept falling right on his backside and not even getting close to half the distance his teacher had jumped. One time he fell too hard and wrong and dislocated his shoulder.

Harry rushed into gym's locker room, gripped one of the pipes in bathroom and snapped his shoulder back into it's normal state.

"Think I'll practice that one a bit more." said Harry with a groan. Thanks to that old medical book, he's was able to cut his hospital visits down to almost nothing. And thanks to Mr. Doppler, not only did he not feel like Uncle Vernon was a bomb ready to go off, he was finally feeling challenged in the classroom.

Mr. Doppler would give each student a book to read for reading class and then have them do a report on it. While others were doing reports on fairytales or animals, Harry would be doing reports on chemistry, ancient history, or physical science.

His other in class work would have different problems than what the other kids did, they would continue on with the multiplication tables while he'd be dealing with equations and other advanced mathematical problems. Harry was still hitting good marks, making sure to get B's and a few A's.

Harry rotated his shoulder slightly, it twinged slightly and he found his thoughts going back to the first time he ended up in the hospital for a school related incident:

His normal teacher wasn't in the classroom, but some lady in a spotted blue dress with an extra curly brown hair wig over her, very real, gray haired head, was busy writing her name in loopy letters.

_Ms. Bobberton_.

She placed the chalk firmly back into the small shelf underneath the board sat smartly in her seat.

"Can I help you?" she asked sharply.

"Uh..." said Harry.

"'Uh' is not an acceptable answer." said the substitute teacher with a frown.

"Oh...This is my classroom." said Harry quickly.

"Well then, sit in your assigned seat, and don't try and play any pranks." she said sternly.

"Yes ma'am. No ma'am." said Harry walking towards his desk.

"Well? Which is it? Yes or no, it cannot be both." said Ms. Bobberton.

"It has to be both ma'am." said Harry quietly.

"And how do you figure that, boy?" asked Ms. Bobberton, she was tapping her finger on the top of the desk.

"Well ma'am, I said 'yes' to sitting in my usual seat, and 'no' to mean that I won't prank you." said Harry clearly. "I had to use both in order to answer you ma'am."

The substitute sent a flicker of a glare in the boy's direction. Harry looked down in defeat, reached into his backpack and pulled out a book he had taken from the library.

_Today was going to be a long day._ thought Harry with a sigh.

Soon after the bell rang and everyone clambered into their seats. Ms. Bobberton walked in front of the class and looked at each student in turn.

"I'm Ms. Bobberton. I'll be your teacher today, don't think that you'll have it easy." said the teacher with a frown.

And she was right, well partly right, all that day they had to listen to her discuss different points of history. Harry could swear that she picked the most boring parts of history to talk about, it was hard for even him to pay attention.

She didn't bother telling them their history homework, but continued onward to reading. Instead of letting them read their books for reading skills practice, she decided to read the script of an old Greek play.

The six year old students couldn't make heads or tails of any part of the play, Harry could make out some bits, like someone dying, but he did better reading it, than listening to someone who speaks in monotone.

Once again she didn't speak of any homework for reading class. Harry was starting to get concerned. Their regular teacher made sure that they would at least have three pieces of homework a day, she was getting to the final few classes and still had not given them any homework for the next day. And with her opening statement, it was contradicting what she was doing. The other students were overjoyed, they weren't told of any assignments at all that day, so they just relaxed and allowed the old woman teach them anything she wanted.

Art had gone by, put they didn't pull out any acrylic paint, clay, or even paper, they sat there as she bored them senseless with talk about the world of modern art and what every piece of art meant, at least to her.

"Ms. Bobberton? Are we going to draw at all today?" asked one of Harry's classmates.

She ignored him and continued on with her interpretation of a giant painting with one large black dot on it.

"Okay, now I'm getting bored." grumbled the boy.

Harry wasn't too sure what he could do, he had a feeling that something during math class was going to cause the entire day to go straight to hell.

Sure enough. "Time to work on our math skills." said Ms. Bobberton as she passed out a single piece of paper and a calculator with way too many buttons. "Finish that before a half an hour has passed. If at least one of you gets some right, I'll forget the essay on what you learned today." The students stared at her as she passed the papers out.

Harry looked down at the paper and saw several questions, not one of them was using the addition and subtraction skills they were working on at the time. He saw symbols he had never seen before on a test for kids.

The other students stared in horror at the test that lay before them. Harry could tell they weren't going to be able to answer one single question. Dudley was a sick sort of green, and so were the rest of his friends.

Harry turned his attention back onto the paper and raised his pencil and took out a piece of scrap paper. He strained his mind to remember some of the old math books that he found in the library. Then he remembered that he wrote some of them in his white notebook, he dug it out and opened it to the respected page. He read the first problem and took ahold of his scrap paper and set to work. Hoping he could scrape by with one right at least.

A half hour came swiftly by and Ms. Bobberton walked swiftly around each student and picked up each paper. She scoffed at each paper she picked up from the six year old students.

"Hmph, another zero percent paper, and covered with doodles." she said with a sneer.

She said the same thing as she continued down the line, finally she reached Harry's desk.

"Alright boy, you're the last." she said with a smirk on her face. Harry handed her the piece of paper. He didn't feel confident about some of the answers, but the others, he felt he had gotten at least close.

She read the paper, and her eyes widened in shock. She didn't say a witty remark, she didn't degrade him in anyway, she just stared. Harry took that to mean, that he must have at least gotten one or two right, and he was greatly relieved. He and his classmates were saved.

"How...how did you answer these?" she asked coldly.

"I read it in a book." said Harry quietly. "Did I get one right?" he added hopefully.

"Y-You had to cheat!" she said loudly. The other students in the classroom turned and looked on curiously.

"No ma'am, I have my work right here." said Harry holding up a piece of paper with different equations written on it, with plenty of eraser marks all over it. Ms. Bobberton wouldn't have it.

"Of course you must have cheated! I could tell the moment you walked in that you were going to be trouble!" she shouted.

Harry watched and listened as calmly as he could to the teacher that was still calling him a cheater and several other things. Twice she had to stop herself before she uttered a profane word, but after listening to Uncle Vernon's foul mouth for six years, he knew every word, and could tell where she was trying to go with it.

Harry could feel his anger crashing overtop his receding calmness, he tried chewing on the inside of his cheek. Finally his anger broke through, for the first time in a long time, he felt genuine fury and rage coursing through his small body. He stared hard up at the teacher with a scowl on his face when suddenly the entire classroom heard a small pop.

They stopped their muttering, looked up and saw the brown wig was now..._blue_. Several students began to snort and finally broke down into peals of laughter. Ms. Bobberton looked around at the students in confusion. What were they laughing at? It most certainly cannot be _her_. Perhaps it's something outside.

She turned to look out the window, and in the reflection, saw something blue on her head. She rushed over to her purse, yanked out her mirror and screamed when she saw the state of her hair. She started dancing around frantically and tugged roughly at her wig to take it off, but it wouldn't budge.

Harry stared in disbelief at the woman's now blue colored wig. There was no possible way that could happen, not without help. Harry didn't know what was going on. But watching the woman dance around and shrieking was quite funny to watch.

She turned and glared venomously over to the boy. But Harry couldn't see how he was to blame, she was two desks away from him, and his hands never left the desk. But that look made him a little worried.

The day was over and Harry was just about ready to pack up all his books and leave, but Ms. Bobberton, with a hat on her head came over to him and handed a note to Harry.

"Give this to your parents." she said with foul look on her face.

Harry looked at the note, and felt his stomach fall right into his shoes. _A note home._ He hadn't gotten one of these before in an actual classroom, gym class oh yeah, lots of times. But in a normal class...never. Dudley received a truck load, every week, but the Dursley's always brushed them off. He didn't think that he would receive the same treatment. This wasn't good, but he knew that the principal would call Uncle Vernon and then he'd catch it worse than if he would just hand Uncle Vernon the note.

Today was not going to end well.

He went back home and tried to make Uncle Vernon's favorite steak and kidney pie for dinner, hoping that it would soften his mood and perhaps not deal with him too harshly. The teacher's wig turning blue wasn't and couldn't be his fault, but that wouldn't stop Uncle Vernon from flipping out and beating his small frail body to a pulp. But hopefully, he could mediate the damage.

Harry placed the miniature pie down on Uncle Vernon's plate and poured him a small glass of wine, all the while his hands were trembling. He had handed Uncle Vernon the note after he had settled into his chair, and was rewarded with a promise that Harry would be _dealt_ with after dinner.

And boy did he ever.

Harry woke up in a screaming ambulance, an oxygen mask over his mouth and a needle thing in his arm. One of the medical personnel looked over at Harry and saw he was awake.

"Easy kid, we're pulling into the hospital now." he said reaching over and checking the heartbeat being displayed on the monitor.

Harry's eyes fluttered shut. He tried to think what had happened. Out of his fevered dreams he remembered getting beaten ferociously, more than ever before. They threw him in his cupboard and didn't open it for several days. When they opened the door to let him out, he was feverish and covered with bloodstains. Harry could barely remember anything else after that.

He felt the thud of the stretcher being placed on the ground and felt the sensation of being wheeled down a smooth surface. In his fog he could hear them talking about something to do with the letters BP and respiratory...he didn't care what they meant, he just wanted the throbbing pain in his head and body to stop.

It was several days until he could summon the strength to wake up. He saw several people staring down at him, Harry could barely make out what they were saying.

"Can you describe the dog, son?" asked one of the men.

Harry looked at him with confusion. A heavy hand fell on his sore shoulders, he took a look up and saw his Uncle Vernon standing over him. The look on his face, told a well trained Harry, to remain silent and go with whatever he said.

"It happened so fast that I don't think either of us can describe it." said Uncle Vernon.

"Judging by what I can see, he might have developed rabies, is he allergic to anything?' asked the doctor swiftly as he moved forward to look in Harry's eyes.

"No, nothing." said Aunt Petunia quickly. She stood in the corner, looking down at the boy with a small amount of worry.

"Then I think to be on the safe side, we'd better start with the rabies treatment." said the Doctor taking a needle off a tray. Harry's head continued to pound and he passed out again.

Back in the boy's locker room, he sat on the bench and stared fixedly on the floor. He's come a long way since then, he felt self-sufficient and fully capable to take care of himself. After that hospital stay, he tried his hardest to hide his achievements in class, but with this latest assessment...he had to let go some knowledge.

But he was getting antsy, he missed Officer McFinn, and Dr. Clark. He needed to vent something, somehow. These acrobatic things were helping, but that was just exercising his body, not his mind. He wanted to do both at the same time.

The next few months passed quickly by, Harry continued on with his school work and even his physical endeavors. Mr. Doppler caught Harry doing back flips during recess.

"What are you doing?" asked Mr. Doppler.

"Uh...well..." said Harry.

Mr. Doppler looked at the boy with scrutiny pouring from his eyes, but then they faded away into pride.

"What are you trying to do? Join the Olympics or become the next Cirque du Soleil star?" he said teasingly. "Come on, I'll help you."

He trained Harry, to run faster, and be as agile as a cat and continued on enhancing his mental prowess. Harry had never felt better, he was getting the venting time he needed but it still wasn't enough.

Soon he found that he would need even more time to vent.

It was getting to be Halloween, Harry had decided against going out trick-or-treating in favor of helping Mrs. McFinn hand out candy and toffee apples. So instead of planning a candy route, Harry was busy at Mrs. McFinn's house, working tirelessly to helping her bake twelve dozen cookies for a local fund raiser for a stray animal shelter.

Harry finished taking the cinnamon cookies in the shape of cats and dogs when a knock came at the door.

"Who could that be?" asked Mrs. McFinn as she wiped her hands on her flower apron.

Harry looked over to the door, but went back to the stove and lifted the golden brown cookies off the cookie sheet and placed them on a cooling rack.

"H-Harry?" said Mrs. McFinn from the kitchen door. "Come here, sweetheart. Someone wants to talk to us."

She wrapped an arm around Harry's small shoulders and took him to the living room, standing in the middle, almost as still as a statue, was a man in full military uniform.

"What can we do for you sir?" said Harry shyly.

The military man looked down at the boy.

_So this is the kid, huh? This is the reason we're breaking normal protocol?_ Thought the man wonderingly.

Mrs. McFinn pulled Harry over to the couch and held onto him.

The man took a deep breath. "I regret to tell you, that Sergeant Dr. Samuel Clark is missing in action."

Harry turned pale as Mrs. McFinn covered her mouth.

"We have more than enough evidence to tell us that he didn't go M.I.A on his own accord, we will find him, but that's all I'm authorized to say." said the man somberly.

Harry's eyes began to well up with tears. _No, this can't happen, he was supposed to be home in a two months. _

Harry turned and buried his face in Mrs. McFinn's neck and wept bitterly.

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**Thank you for reading! Please review!**

**Because of Christmas, I'm not going to put up a Question of the Chapter. **

**BUT! On Christmas Eve, around midnight, I'm going to post a Christmas Story! A Harry Potter Christmas story! You can either look for it, or follow/favorite me to get the notice that it's up! **

**Happy Holidays!**

**Merry Christmas!**

_**Lady Celestial Star**_


	22. Chapter 22 The Forbidden Fruit Ruby

**Merry Christmas! I hoped this all took you by surprise! Remember, my Christmas story is up now! I stayed up till midnight, waiting to upload it!**

**Now those of you who have read Exploring Harry Potter's Life, I'm betting you guys have been waiting for this ;D**

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Inspector Holmes stopped by the McFinn's house after he heard about Dr. Clark. He liked the man, when one of his boys on the force would get hurt, Sam would make sure they kept in the loop for almost the entire time. He consoled Holly, and Harry…well…he was almost beyond trying to reach through to comfort.

One day, Harry came out to the police department, to talk to Inspector Holmes.

"What can I do for you Bud?" asked Inspector Holmes. He was happy that Harry had finally come to him.

"I need to raise money, how can I do that?" asked Harry quietly.

Inspector Holmes stared at the boy. "How much do you need?"

"Two milllion pounds, or around there." said Harry picking a number at random.

"For what?" asked Inspector Holmes, his eyes opening wider.

Harry looked down. "To try and find Dr. Clark."

Inspector Holmes looked down as well, right after James, that doctor meant the entire world to the boy. He racked his brains to find a solution to the boy's dilemma. "Well, you like cooking right? We're about four blocks away from the nearest deli and even their food isn't something to write home about. We at the station could use some hot meals from time to time."

Harry looked up and smiled at the man.

"It'll take quite a long time for you to get that amount, but every little bit helps." said Inspector Homes smiling back at the boy.

A few months later in the Police Station, "Parker! Where is that Stapelton file?" said Inspector Holmes.

"Right here, Inspector Homes" said the man named Parker standing up and walking the file over to the Inspector.

"I need to you go and speak to Mrs. Heavebow on Wilkin Street. She may know something about her sister's disappearance. See if she can give you an insight to their mother. I don't trust that cold old fish." said the Inspector. He didn't normally voice his suspicions like that, but that old woman was dodging about too much when he would go to the matriarch of the missing woman's family to chat.

"Yes, sir."

"Lunch!" shouted a young voice coming from the door which swung widely open.

Several officers stood up and walked over to the door hurriedly.

Harry, with a neatly repaired, blue painted food trolley bearing the photos of several different foods which included pizza, spaghetti, different sandwiches, chili, soup, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs and several other things, each bearing a different price came into the room full of police officers.

"What's the special today, Bud?" asked Inspector Homes, walking over.

"My 'Seven-day spaghetti', with garlic bread, fruit of your choice and a slice of apple pie, only twelve pounds." said Harry pointing to the large pot on a portable hot plate.

"Sounds good to me, sign me up." said Inspector Homes smiling broadly, he took out his wallet and placed the money on the small counter on the food trolley that wasn't covered with sandwiches or fruit. "How's the fund raising going? Are you going to have enough money to find Sam when you graduate?"

"I hope so…but it's going pretty slow." said Harry sadly.

"What did you expect? You can't raise almost two million pounds in the course of a few months. There are people that work two jobs a day and they don't make even a half million pounds in a few years. It's gonna take some time, Bud." said Inspector Homes with a smile.

"I know, but I thought I would get some money together and send someone else first. Like a Private Eye." said Harry sadly.

"Well, I can understand that, but it is going to take some time. I would say, go home and enjoy your childhood, but you really can't do that at your house, can you?" said Inspector Homes with a frown. "Come on in my office after you finish selling the guys lunch."

A little later, Harry walked into Inspector Holmes' office. "How much money have you raised so far, Bud?" asked Inspector Homes twirling his plastic fork in the spaghetti.

Harry whipped out his small white book and read quickly. "Five thousand and twenty six pounds and fifty-four shillings."

Inspector Homes dropped his fork in shock. "Wow! You must be working very hard, how did you raise that much money so soon?" he gasped

"Mrs. McFinn and I take food all over the building here and sell baked goods out of her house. I even made a wedding cake a month ago." said Harry with a smile.

"Have you even given yourself a day off, or anything?" said Inspector Homes concernedly. "You should be out having fun, acting like a kid! Let the military fellows find Sam." he stood up to get himself a cup of cold water from his own water cooler behind his desk.

"All they're going to do is label him M.I.A nothing more." said Harry suddenly beginning to weep bitterly. "I…I want to find him! I wanna bring him home!"

Inspector Homes, took a quick step back, but then walked around his desk and brought the small eight year old into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Bud, I'm sorry. Why don't you let us help you raise the money? We could start a collection here."

"I wanna earn the money, I don't want people going without their own hard-earned money 'cause I can't raise it." he dried his eyes quickly. "I gotta get back; Mrs. McFinn and I are making a cake for a garden party."

"Sure thing, Bud, see you tomorrow." he said as Harry pushed his little cart out of the room. He then sighed, and spoke too quietly for Harry to hear, "Are you ever going to let other's help you?"

A few days later, once Harry had finished selling the Police Department their suppers, he pulled his cart out of the building and prepared to go back to Mrs. McFinn. Harry looked down the step and there was a well-dressed, rotund man, hair combed over the ever present bald spot on his head, surrounded by several different cameras and reporters.

"This latest string of thefts in getting out of hand, thieves are just coming into our places of business, our havens of cultural enrichment and thieving all we hold dear and cherish. This has to end now!" he shouted dramatically.

"And to help restore the peace of mind of our noble and fellow citizens." The man stated loud, like a preacher shouting the good word to a congregation. "I have created a brand new security system! And to prove that it will halt any criminal in his path, I will invite any thief who dares to try, can come and test it out. If you lose…well," he laughed slightly. "You go to jail." he said with a smirk.

"Can you tell us anything about this security system, Mr. Buckthorn?" asked one of the reporters.

"Unfortunately no, it would take away the _surprise_, for when the culprit comes calling." said the man stroking his mustache.

"What is it that they are going to try and steal?" asked a reporter.

"Well…my entire manor is engulfed in my security system, but…I happen to have the famous 'Forbidden Fruit' ruby in my manor. If they can steal that…I will give the thief three million pounds!" said Mr. Buckthorn.

The photographers began to click madly and reporters asked questions, however, they were asking them all at the same time so no one could really hear one question in particular.

Harry stared at the man standing at the lower parts of the stairs. _Three million pounds? That was more than enough for him to start looking for Dr. Clark!_

Out of the din, one reporter asked a question with a louder voice than any other one had.

"How would they collect the reward, sir?" asked the reporter.

"They can come here, hand it to the officers and ask them to call me. I hereby swear, on tape, that I will not press any charges and that the money will be theirs, if they can get past my security systems!" he said smugly. "And if they get caught by my methods, off to jail they go."

"What a fraud." said Inspector Homes walking up behind the small boy. "I'll bet that he's told all the thieves in town to go to his house and surrender the moment they go in there, then turn around and bail them all out, through a "prepaid" attorney."

"So, anyone could go in and rob the place?" said Harry quietly.

"Anyone with brains, I suppose. You better head on to Holly's." said Inspector Homes patting Harry's head. "She's most likely waiting for you."

Harry reached under the cart and slid a bicycle out, attached the cart to the back of the bike, clambered on board and pedaled off.

_That thing is worth the twelve pounds I paid the junkman._ thought the Inspector with a bright smile.

"Oh! What a cute little boy! Quick get a shot of the kid!" said one of the reporters.

"Would rather you didn't." said the veteran officer quickly as he went to stand in front of the cameras. "Don't ask why, we would just rather you didn't."

"Camera shy, eh?" said one of the photographers.

"None of your business to be honest." muttered Inspector Homes making sure that he stood between the camera and Harry. He knew that if Harry appeared on the news, in front of the police station, and Vernon saw it. He had a terrible feeling that the next funeral he'd be attending would be his little 'Bud's'

Over the next few days, Harry poured intensely over a mountain of books, ranging from physics to engineering. He spent more time in the local secondary school's chemistry lab, where he had special permission to use,(Thanks to Mr. Doppler) mixing different compounds together and studying their reactions. Until he went to the local junkyard and dug through the different refuse that the people of Little Whinging cast off their domestic domiciles. He took his allowance that Mrs. McFinn had given him, to local hardware stores and purchased small things that he couldn't find in the junkyard and took them to Mrs. McFinn's garage.

Harry had learned how to use each thing in the garage from Officer McFinn, who enjoyed working with his hands and even rebuilt his car from the twisted wreck it had become before he even bought it. Harry used the machinery, with Inspector Homes watching over him carefully, to mold the metal to the shapes he wanted. He didn't tell Inspector Homes what he was doing, but he wanted Mrs. McFinn not to worry about him hurting himself. Inspector Homes learned very quickly not to ask what the boy was making. For all he would receive in return was a very cheeky grin.

A few nights later, and on a street called Nicle lane, Harry, dressed all in black, stopped underneath a large tree and tossed a thin rope up to one of the higher branches, as he climbed he looked around quickly and made sure nobody was around. He continued to climb onto the tree and pulled himself one of the higher branches. He pulled his rope up from along the wall. He climbed further up the tree and pulled out a large bag of powdered sugar out of the knapsack on his bag. He ripped the bag open, poured a little on his hand and tossed it high into the air and watched it as it fell. As it fell, the entire ground was lit up with crisscrossing lasers.

Harry took out a large tube from the knapsack and aimed it carefully, when he decided on a spot, he pulled on a small trigger underneath the tube. Something came whizzing out of the end and flew all the way over to the manor on the other side of the lawn.

He tied one end of the cable that came out of the tube to the tree. He put thicker gloves over top his already gloved hands and traveled, hand over hand over to the other side of the yard. Once he reached the other side he settled himself on the small windowsill.

He took a squeeze tube and squeezed the contents around the entire bottom part of the window, he then put the squeeze tube back into his bag and then placed a small box beside the window. He clicked a little toggle switch on it's side and waited for the faint beeping to stop.

He took a hold of the window and eased it gently out of it's place, before he placed it on the floor, he took another small amount of powder and blew it gently from his hand. Nothing happened under the ledge and he placed the window carefully on the floor.

Harry slipped silently and carefully off the windowsill. He made his way deeper into the darkness of the hallway and stole silently down the hall. He knew exactly where he needed to head to and didn't venture into any other part of the house that didn't have anything to do with the 'Forbidden Fruit' ruby. He knew where it was kept, because he had seen the blueprints of the house. Mr. Buckthorn had brazenly posted it on a wall in the police station.

The next day, Inspector Homes' office played host to the man from the press conference out in front of the station and two men with briefcases sitting on either side Inspector Homes' desk.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! YOU CAN'T HAVE MY RUBY!" shouted Mr. Buckthorn slamming his fist down on the table.

"But, sir, I have it right here." said Inspector Homes innocently with a broad smile. He pulled out a small white silk bag and tipped the sole content out onto his hand. Out came a single ruby, the exact same size as an apple and round as an orange. "This is the 'Forbidden Fruit' ruby isn't it?"

"It cannot be! I have the ruby right here!" shouted Mr. Buckthorn, pulling out another similar looking ruby. Inspector Homes, placed the ruby he had in his hand, in a drawer and then took the ruby from Mr. Buckthorn and examined it carefully. He then smiled.

"Yours is a fake." He said handing it back to the man.

"WHAT?" shouted the man. "That's not possible!"

"Trust me, I've had several years of experience with what this is, to know it's not a real ruby." Inspector Homes smiled and looked over the man's shoulder. "Hello sir, thanks for coming."

Mr. Buckthorn turned around and took a quick step back. The man was obviously of Asian descent and he had an jeweler's eyepiece dangling around his neck. He wore a finely tailored suit and a solid gold watch on his wrist.

"It is my pleasure, what did you need?" said the man bowing deeply.

"I need you to examine this," said Inspector Homes pointing to the ruby in the man's hand. "Do you know of the Forbidden Fruit ruby?" asked Inspector Homes.

"I do, sir. It is a very famous jewel." he said taking the jewel in hand. He examined it, turning it over and over in his hand. "And this is not it."

Mr. Buckthorn stared, fearfully. "What…How can this be?"

"This is not it." said the jeweler once again.

"Prove it!" said Mr. Buckthorn's lawyer.

The jeweler smiled and placed his teeth on the jewel and bit…a…chunk…off…

"You wouldn't be able to do that with the real thing." said the jeweler munching on the piece in his mouth.

"What…what is that…?" asked Mr. Buckthorn his finger pointing shakily.

"A type of rock candy it seems. It doesn't leave a sticky residue anywhere and it is absolutely clear. A very novel idea to use as a jewel replacement." said the jeweler.

"I've got children that love that stuff, my daughter is very good at making it." said Inspector Homes tapping a picture of his family. "Here is the one that was taken from his house last night." said Inspector Homes handing the jewel over to the Asian man with great care.

After a moment of examination, he looked up with a smile. "This IS the Forbidden Fruit ruby."

"So that means that you lose, and someone is three million pounds richer." said the man standing beside Inspector Homes. "And if you think you're going to go back on your word, I've got a surprise for you."

He took out a remote and pointed it towards the TV hanging on the wall. On the TV, it showed Mr. Buckthorn, standing in front of the Police Department and saying: "_I hereby swear, on tape, that I will not press charges and that the money will be theirs, if they can get past my security system." _

"What have you got to say to that?" said Inspector Homes.

Mr. Buckthorn growled fiercely.

"Bring the money here tomorrow, I'll see to it that the money is given to the person who broke through your system." said Inspector Homes, "And until you do, the Police Department will keep your ruby safe for you, we'll call it evidence."

"I want to meet the foul beast that stole it!" shouted Mr. Buckthorn.

"He doesn't particularly trust you, so he's going to remain anonymous." said the man standing beside Inspector Homes. "And, you opened your home, and invited thieves to come and steal the ruby. You cannot possibly be angry with someone who took the ball you dropped and ran with it."

"Fine, whatever just keep this to yourselves!" growled Mr. Buckthorn.

"Ooh, sorry about that. I already called the TV stations and newspapers. They were waiting a whole week to hear news of someone to try and succeed." said the man beside Inspector Homes.

Mr. Buckthorn turned and stormed out of the room, with his solicitor in tow. The jeweler bowed and left.

"You think he's going to give me the three million pounds?" said a quiet voice coming from behind a cabinet.

"He's going to have to, Bud." said Inspector Homes, "guess this takes care of raising the money you need to hire that P.I." he smiled.

"It's more than enough!" said Harry happily stepping out from hiding. "Now I'm certain to find him!"

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**Merry Christmas!**


	23. Chapter 23 Outstretched Fingers

**Glad everyone liked that I uploaded early for Christmas!**

**Ugh, I've been fighting a cold, its making me feel miserable...**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Harry had to wait several weeks till he could get his hands on the three million pounds he was promised. Mr. Buckthorn decided to pretend to already pay the person that took his ruby, but a signed statement by all the police officers in the building, given straight to a judge, convinced him to straighten up and fly right. Well, at least for that particular part.

"I can't believe some no account _thief _managed to sneak in and take my ruby!" shouted Mr. Buckthorn as he pounded the table.

"It is most unfortunate sir." said the butler standing behind him with a tea tray.

"My plans are utterly _ruined_!" growled Mr. Buckthorn. "That thief will pay for this!"

He spent over a million pounds to try and get the best rigged system so that it worked completely in his favor. He would mass produce his security system; sell them to every museum, bank gallery, jewelry store and mansion in England. They would stop every thief not controlled by him, leaving the police unneeded their funding would be slashed, and the police departments all across the country would be cut by at least a third. That would satisfy some of his political friends, they would get a bit of cream off the top of the excess funds. Once he sold them each to building ready for the plucking, he would send in hired thieves, acting as upgrade technicians. They would bring in exact duplicates of the treasures hiding in the houses. They would send the families out of the house for "security" reasons, and then replace their valuables with cheap, but good imitations.

"I want that thief's head on a platter." said Mr. Buckthorn with a snarl.

"Yes sir." said the butler.

"Get my men out and about and find me that son of a bitch!" said Mr. Buckthorn angrily.

"At once sir." said the butler smartly. The butler bowed low and walked out of the room obediently.

Mr. Buckthorn growled low, "I'll find you, and when I do, it's going to take more than _your _fancy footwork to get out of this one."

Meanwhile Harry was going through the phone book, trying to find the best Private Eye he could. He looked at the address of each person, trying to find a reputable neighborhood, he stopped after a short while, being in a reputable area didn't mean he or she knew what they were doing. He had to wait until after lunch to have Mrs. McFinn call the people and ask them about their credentials.

Mrs. McFinn came over to the table with a large pot of spaghetti and placed it down on the kitchen table.

"Lunch time sweetie, what are you looking for?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"A Private Eye, someone who could try and find Dr. Clark." said Harry, still turning the pages of the phone directory.

"Have we raised enough money?" asked Mrs. McFinn as she handed him a plate and a slice of bread and butter.

"More than enough, I think." said Harry with a secretive smile.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Mrs. McFinn confusedly.

"That we raised a lot of money for finding Dr. Clark. I got a large tip." said Harry crossing his fingers under the table. "Can you call these people after lunch?" he said circling several names.

"Of course honey." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile as she took the piece of paper.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. "Who could it be now?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

She went to go and answer the door, Harry began to pile the tasty lunch onto a plate when she heard Mrs. McFinn gasp loudly. He hurried over to the door and peered through the swinging door.

"_Mother_!" said Mrs. McFinn in surprise.

"Holly dear." said Mrs. Lindor as she glided into the living.

Harry hadn't seen Mrs. McFinn's mother since the garden party, but Mrs. McFinn talked about her to her husband as if it were an inside joke. Mrs. McFinn would make something for lunch or dinner when they were all there and Officer McFinn would laugh and say it was hardly possible to eat this good on such a modest food budget.

"Trust me, if the plate itself cost two thousand pounds, my mother says it's not worth eating." said Mrs. McFinn with a laugh.

Harry smiled with pity as he watched Miss Holly's mother walk around her living room. "You hardly write I was worried that you didn't want to talk to your dear mumsey." She placed her elegant mink coat on the coat rack beside the window walked around the room. She kept making a slight _tsking_ sound with her mouth. "Honestly dear, I simply _don't_ see how you can live so primitively."

What was she talking about? Harry looked around, the house was wonderful. Harry never felt more comfortable there than anywhere else. Strangest thing though, he felt almost vulnerable at the Dursley's, whereas Officer McFinn's house...he felt as if he were wrapped in his real mother's arms. It was weird...

"I live just fine mother." said Mrs. McFinn walking around the outer edge of the living room. "Better than most people with far more."

Harry smiled brightly.

"I'm just having lunch mother, would you like some?" said Mrs. McFinn politely, she was hoping her mother would decline and say she was just passing through.

"I'd _love _something delectable dear!" said her mother graciously. "What are you having? Pate de fois gras? Escargot? Confit de canard?"

Mrs. McFinn's eyebrow raised slightly, "Its spaghetti, mother." said Mrs. McFinn.

Mrs. Lindor looked a little bit taken aback. Harry, from his hiding place behind the door, giggled happily. Mrs. McFinn was right, if the meal itself didn't cost a fortune or sound French, she didn't want it.

"Oh, well...I'm afraid I was just stopping in to see how you were doing dear. I'll come by another time, we'll go and have lunch in the finest restaurant in town." said Mrs. Lindor quickly. She took her coat, gave her daughter a quick kiss and almost ran out the door.

"I should make spaghetti more often." said Mrs. McFinn with a smile. "I think I know why...James loved it so much." she had tears in her eyes.

Harry began to cry silently. Mrs. McFinn noticed the little boy and his tears and hurried to engulf him in a large hug. The wounds were still fresh, and it would be foolish for either of them to think that it would go away easily.

"Oh, sweetie. It's alright." said Mrs. McFinn soothingly. "We'll get one of our boys back, I promise."

Deciding to occupy his time while he waited for his Private Eye, (It took him a long time to find the only one willing to leave the country) to find Dr. Clark, he continued on with delivering food. Doing the whole treasure hunt in someone's house was really fun, but he knew that it was only a fleeting opportunity, but he dearly hoped someone would call and have him test another security system. So in order to be ready, he continued expanding his knowledge and physical prowess.

He continued with his experiments of different compounds and the crafting of different tools. He began to delve into the scrapyard on the outskirts of Little Whinging and repair different broken down toys, appliances and other pieces of junk. Doing so gave him the practical knowledge of how things were built and how he could use the pieces and parts for something else. However, repairing a car, was way beyond him.

Harry pushed his little food cart up the ramp of the police department when he noticed two men hiding in the bushes. He was about to ask them innocently what they were doing, when he noticed the bulge in both of their coats. That bulge told him one thing, he was packing heat and to get away as quickly as he could and tell the people in the Police Department about them.

Keeping calm, Harry pushed the small trolley up the rest of the way and shoved it through the doors. He hoped to find Inspector Homes before the men would have the chance to run away or come in and start shooting people or start outside and work their way in.

"Hey, Bud." said the police officer at the counter. "What's the special today?"

"Uh, Shepherd's Pie, baked potatoes, and fruit cocktail, six pounds." said Harry.

"Ooh, I'm coming." said another police officer eagerly taking out his wallet.

Harry reached into the heated turn table, took out a miniature pie, placed it on a thick paper plate, took out the foil wrapped potato, a cup of fruit and handed it to the approaching officer. The officer placed the money gratefully into a small locked box.

When he got close enough, Harry whispered into the cop's ear, looking around quickly. "There are two guys in the shrubs, they've got guns." said Harry. The police officer blinked, gave a curt nod and took his food back to his counter, picked up the phone and spoke quietly into the speaker.

As Harry handed out the rest of the food, Inspector Homes was the last person to be served; ordering a hamburger and chips, the two men who were hiding in the foliage came in thrashing about in the cuffs of two of Little Whinging's finest.

"What's up with this?" asked Inspector Homes taking a bit of his lunch.

"These blokes were hiding in our bushes, they're armed." said one of the officers holding the man he had captured firmly against the wall.

"You have no _right_!" shouted one of the men.

"Really? City sort of frowns on people hiding in bushes with guns locked and loaded." said the other officer. "Makes the citizens mighty nervous."

The men were carted off down the stairs, they were still screaming about not being justly arrested and police brutality.

"If they had hurt you with those guns as you walked past, I would have shown them the _real_ meaning of police brutality." said Inspector Homes to Harry. "Good thing you caught them." he patted Harry's head.

"Wonder what they wanted." said Harry tidying up his cart.

"We may know sooner or later, did you find a good Private Eye?" asked Inspector Homes.

"Yeah, well, I hope he's a good one. He was the only one willing to go outside of Britain." said Harry.

"Well, here's hoping." said Inspector Homes raising his cup of coffee he had purchased from Harry. He took a sip of the coffee and smiled. "You need to make coffee here. We can solve crimes, but brewing coffee is beyond us."

A half hour later, after Harry had his lunch with Inspector Homes and was about to walk out the door with the Inspector.

"Guess, who they called when they got their phone call?" said another officer at the counter looking at a computer.

"Do I want to know?" asked Inspector Homes.

"Mr. Buckthorn himself." said the officer.

"Wonder what his plan is with those thugs?" asked one of the officers.

"Trying to find the thief that spoiled his plans and took his ruby I'll wager." said Inspector Homes.

"What plans?" asked one of the officers.

"To cut the police force down by a large percentage." said Inspector Homes.

Several officers were slack-jawed.

"So I saved the police department?" asked Harry with a wide grin.

"You sure did." said Inspector Homes with a proud smile.

Later that week, Harry was discreetly given a medal for his actions when Chief of Scotland Yard told the Prime Minister someone had broken into Mr. Buckthorn's home and stopped the security scam dead in its tracks. The award wasn't revealed to the press, for Harry's protection. Inspector Homes was afraid that if Mr. Buckthorn was able to learn about the thief's identity, they'd find Harry floating lifeless in the Thames in London.

The Prime Minister had no idea that the boy from the Garden Party was the same person that saved countless people from having their property stolen. When he dropped off the award, he was shocked to see the little boy that the Queen doted on, sitting in the Chief's office.

"What are you doing here lad?" asked the Prime Minister with a smile.

"The award is for him." said Inspector Homes.

The Prime Minister stared, he refused to believe it, at least until Harry walked him through how he got the ruby. Then he completely believed the boy and made a mental note to keep this boy in mind whenever he felt something wasn't protected enough. Though he was determined to wait until the boy was at least in his late teens before asking him.

Harry wanted to go and show Mrs. McFinn his medal, but he had to promise to Inspector Homes that he wouldn't tell anyone, cause it was going around town that Mr. Buckthorn wanted a piece of the person that snuck in. Harry didn't want to meet up with an angry Mr. Buckthorn so he kept his promise.

He'd talk to Mrs. McFinn about the break-in, in passing and in a third party version, but something about Mrs. McFinn just wasn't sitting right. Ever since her mother had come to visit that one day, she hadn't been happy. He also noticed that different things were missing from her house. Nothing big like the couch that the Dursley's had repossessed a long time ago, but small things like little knickknacks or books off the shelf.

Harry didn't want to ask, but this was beginning to worry him, was someone stealing her stuff? After going through Mr. Buckthorn's house, he had some great ideas how to protect her stuff if she was being robbed blind.

He didn't want to bug her with questions, but he was the only man in her life now, and he had to protect the household, and her with it. It was his home too and he wouldn't let some thieves come in and take Mrs. McFinn's treasures.

Harry hurried over to Mrs. McFinn's house and saw with horror and dismay there was a moving van in front of the house. Several strong men were carrying Mrs. McFinn's furniture out of the house and placed it carefully in the enclosed truck. Harry ran as fast as he could into Mrs. McFinn, dodging a group of people carrying a large king size bed, and burying himself around Mrs. McFinn's middle when he finally reached her.

"Harry!" said Mrs. McFinn.

"Why are you moving?" asked Harry, his eyes releasing a floodgate of tears. Mrs. McFinn walked him into the kitchen, sat on a chair and pulled the boy onto her lap.

"You remember my mother sweetie?" asked Mrs. McFinn.

"Yeah..." said Harry still sobbing.

"Well, she's...how do I put this...really bossy...before I knew it, I agreed to move out and go back home." said Mrs. McFinn. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I didn't plan on leaving you like this, or at all." she rocked the weeping boy back and forth.

"I don't want you to go." said Harry sobbing loudly.

"I know honey, and I'm so sorry." she said tears falling down her face as well. "But you know, I can still come and pick you up and we can go do things." said Mrs. McFinn softly.

"But, it's not as easy as it is now." said Harry.

"I'm sorry, I really am honey." said Mrs. McFinn. She didn't want to mention that due to financial strains, she had been unable to keep the payments up on the house. Her business was doing splendidly, but somehow the payments were getting larger and larger. Acting as the Good Samaritan, her mother took over payments of the house and paid off the house entirely. There was one condition however, Mrs. McFinn would have to move back home and keep the house just as a vacation bungalow. If Mrs. McFinn backed out now, her mother would sell the house and then she would really be trapped at her mother's house.

Harry held onto her as tightly as he could. He could almost see it in his mind's eye, he was surrounded by darkness all alone and three people were just out of arm's reach, he strained his fingers to try and cling to them, but couldn't quite get them. Officer McFinn faded away quickly, leaving Mrs. McFinn and Dr. Clark reaching out to him, they couldn't reach him either. Then suddenly, Dr. Clark dropped down into the darkness, now there was only Mrs. McFinn. She strained and tried to reach out to him. But she was slowly floating backwards; it was becoming difficult and almost impossible to reach each other.

All Harry could do, was hold onto Mrs. McFinn as she held onto him, creating a permanent memory of her smell, his favorite smell, _gingerbread_.

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**Thanks for reading please review.**

**Not feeling well...so...no question of the chapter...sorry:'(**


	24. Chapter 24 Mr Buckthorn's Rage

**I'm feeling a lot better now, thank goodness for that.**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

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Months had gone by since Mrs. McFinn had left Little Whinging, Harry still met with her on the weekends, but then the visits became few and far between. She gave Harry a key to her house, telling him to keep an eye on it, and allowed him to use the utilities to keep up with his food delivery business. When she did come around, they would spend the day baking, cooking or traveling around just to get out of Little Whining. Unfortunately, as the weeks went on, she stopped coming all together, she warned Harry that she wasn't going to be able to come around. Harry was sad, but he knew that she had to go, not just to appease her mother, but to help herself heal.

She didn't have to tell him that for him to realize it. He noticed that she'd open her locket and look at Officer McFinn's picture and tears would down her face. Harry could completely understand where she was coming from, every time he would go to the station, or look at their house, he would feel a terrible sadness grip his heart. If going away would help her, then it had to be done. Though, he knew she didn't need her mother to keep pressuring her to leave.

"My mother wants to take me on a trip dear." said Mrs. McFinn as they walked around a large museum in London.

"Where you going?" asked Harry curiously.

"She's taking me on a trip around the world, I'm going to be gone for quite a long time, but I'll bring you plenty of souvenirs from all over the world." said Mrs. McFinn. "I promise."

Harry looked down sorrowfully. "I don't want you to go." said Harry. He couldn't help but feel selfish, she was the last thing that he had that made him absolutely happy. Now she was leaving.

"I don't want to go either, but you know what you can do for me?" asked Mrs. McFinn with a similar sad look.

Harry looked up at her. He'd do anything for her, he'd even go and sneak into Mr. Buckthorn's place again just to give her his beautiful ruby.

"Will you take care of James for me? While I'm gone?" asked Mrs. McFinn. "I know you'll take care of him, better than anyone else I could ever ask."

Harry nodded through the tears.

And there he was, almost every day after school, tidying up the tombstone, and weeding the area by hand. He'd talk to the stone that marked where Officer McFinn rested, telling him all about his day at school, his accomplishments and any new recipe that he came up with. The weeks went slowly by until finally, it was the day before his ninth birthday.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Officer McFinn, till Miss Holly comes back to England. I'm sure she'll tell you all about the trip." said Harry as he straightened the flowers in the pot. "I'm doing pretty good at school, you'd like Mr. Doppler, he's real nice…"

"There he is!" said a rough sounding voice.

Harry turned and saw pair of men, just as nasty looking as the ones that were crouching in front of the station. This time however, they weren't just watching, they were running towards him.

Harry stood up quickly ran away as fast as he could, easily outrunning them due to the training he took for the Track Championships. Harry ran as fast as he could out of the churchyard and out into the street, nearly avoiding being hit by cars going in both directions. One of the men however weren't all that lucky. A large truck slammed heavily into man, knocking him several meters, sending his lifeless body crashing to the ground.

"Damn that brat! I'm going to kill him when I get ahold of him!" shouted the other man chasing Harry across the street. Harry didn't stop to offer his condolences, choosing to keep himself alive first. He turned down an alley, knocking trash cans behind him and hopefully deterring the man from following him.

But the man simply knocked the cans away from his feet and continued chasing the boy. Harry turned left on the busy sidewalk and tried to lose the man chasing him. Harry dodged between knees and purses hoping to lose himself in the crowd and place some extra distance between himself and the thug.

But the man was larger and didn't have any qualms about knocking innocent people around and shoving them into oncoming traffic or into the windows of shops. He was gaining on the boy slowly, but most assuredly. The boy was quick, but dodging and trying to escape his pursuer was slowing the boy down little by little.

The people on the sidewalk were in shock, they didn't know what to make of what was going on. They didn't know if this man was truly a villain, or if this was just a disobedient child running away from his guardian.

Either way, they didn't want to get involved.

Once Harry had broken through the crowd, he took off like a shot once again, putting an even greater between himself and the hunter that chased him. Harry was trying to find somewhere to hide, or someone to realize that he was in trouble. Harry tried once again to run across the street, but he tripped and fell over an empty cardboard box. He struck his head on the hard concrete and was immediately knocked out.

The people in the street stared in horror as the man leapt over to the boy, picked him up roughly and shoved him into a large white van that pulled up beside them. Deciding that something had to be done, a few people ran to nearby phones and contacted the police.

When the police received word of the kidnapping, not knowing who the victim was, they flooded the area with cars, hoping to spot the van with the injured boy. They pulled over several vans that met the description, but none of them had the child, or the person that was pursuing him.

Inspector Homes pulled up to the spot where the bystanders last saw the boy, hoping to get a more in-depth description of both the boy, man and the van. He nearly collapsed with fear when he got the description of the boy.

"Black hair, green eyes, and a small scar on his head?" asked Inspector Homes, hoping he heard wrong.

"That's right, brightest green eyes I ever saw, despite not seeing them for very long." said an old woman who had seen it all. "Poor thing fell right over and knocked himself out trying to get away."

Inspector Homes climbed into his car and quickly sped off, rushing to the courthouse, to get a warrant to check Mr. Buckthorn's place.

Harry came to, tied to chair in a dark room with a bright light hanging overhead. Harry groaned and closed one eye against the glare. It was just like in the movies that Mr. Doppler talked about, who in the world could be this dramatic?

He looked around and saw, to his horror, Mr. Buckthorn himself sitting in a chair across from him, with the man who chased him, standing at his side.

"Finally awake boy?" asked Mr. Buckthorn with a sneer.

"No thanks to your guy here." said Harry with a snarl He groaned as he head throbbed, he could feel something hot and wet running down his clammy face.

"Now, now lad. Don't get testy, I just have a few questions for you." said Mr. Buckthorn with a poor excuse for a fatherly smile.

"What do you want?" asked Harry straining against the ropes that were cutting into his wrists.

"You're at that police station all the time, you must have seen the person I'm looking for." said Mr. Buckthorn with a smirk.

Harry looked at the man, so he didn't know that his thief was right in front of him? Lucky him. That worked in his favor, he could just make someone up, but it would have to be someone convincing, and yet someone that didn't exist. Harry made his face look curious, yet frightened at the same time.

"Ah, finally decided to act wisely then eh?" said Mr. Buckthorn with a smirk.

"W-What guy are you looking for?" asked Harry, making his words stutter. Thankfully, Mr. Buckthorn obviously didn't make his money by being smart, he had to have inherited it.

"I'm looking for the person that sneaked into my house, and stole my ruby." said the man across from him sharply.

"Y-You me-mean that guy that beat your traps?" asked Harry meekly.

Mr. Buckthorn snarled. "That's him."

Harry pretended to squirm slightly. "I don't know him." he tried to sound unconvincing.

"Surely then, you've seen him." said Mr. Buckthorn with a smile.

"I-I think so…" said Harry weakly.

"Tell me about him." said Mr. Buckthorn quickly.

"Well…" said Harry, trying hard to come up with a person quick. An image came into his head, he didn't know where it came from…but it should work.

"Come on lad, I just want you to tell me what he looks like, I could offer him a job." said Mr. Buckthorn trying to sound convincing.

_Not likely, you liar._ Thought Harry bitterly. "Well…he's tall, thin, he's got sort of long black hair, sort of gray eyes, good looking guy." said Harry uneasily.

"We've never seen a man go into the station that looked like that." said the man beside Mr. Buckthorn.

_Uh oh, forgot about that._ Thought Harry quickly. "I don't think he comes in the normal way, I think he comes in through the window or the basement."

The man looked at Mr. Buckthorn quickly. "That could be possible sir." said the man.

"Alright, I want every entrance to the station guarded, I don't want even a rat getting in and out without you knowing." said Mr. Buckthorn angrily.

"Um…can I go now?" asked Harry innocently.

"That's up to Brent, it was his brother that got killed in that little accident you helped make." said Mr. Buckthorn with malicious smile. Harry stared at the man with true fear in his eyes.

The man had a wicked smile on his lips as he cocked the gun in his hand.

Suddenly the door to the left of them crashed open, several people, with bullet proof armor came in. They brandished guns, and yelled at everyone in the room to get on the floor. Harry saw with intense relief that the word _POLICE_ was stamped across their chests. He recognized one of the leading Police members as Inspector Homes.

Mr. Buckthorn tried to make a break for it, but was met with an onslaught from the rear and was easily taken. The man known as Brent hurried over to Harry pulled him out of the chair, and placed the gun to his temple.

Harry froze, not daring to move. Inspector Homes froze as well.

"Let the boy go." said Inspector Homes sternly.

"When I get away, I'll let him go." said Brent hotly.

"That's not going to happen." said Inspector Homes.

"Then he dies." said Brent quickly.

"You kill him, I kill you. You're choice, but if that little boy has even a drop of his blood missing from his body, you'll never leave this room alive." said Inspector Homes.

"You can't do that!" said Brent fretfully.

"I can order my men to go outside. Then it's just you, me, and the boy." said the Inspector. "You can do the stupid thing and die, or the smart thing and live, your choice."

Brent's gun began to twitch violently, making Harry nervous. He sent a fearful look over to the Inspector, who pressed the man harder.

"I'll give you to the count of three." said Inspector Homes.

Brent dropped both the gun and the boy heavily to the floor and planted himself firmly to it as well.

Inspector Homes grabbed Harry and carried him outside to an awaiting ambulance. He sat on the back end of the ambulance and held Harry on his lap, shielding him and warming him with the body heat in his arms and chest.

"Are you okay?" asked Inspector Homes.

"I'm fine now, sir." said Harry weakly. He looked up at the setting sun and turned a deadly shade of white. "The Dursley's are going to kill me."

"Actually, I told them you were kidnapped and when we found you, you were going into the hospital for a while. To make sure you aren't hurt." said Inspector Homes. "No shock that they didn't seem all that worried about you."

Harry looked unconvinced at Inspector Homes' reassurances.

"Don't worry, if they decide to hold this against you, I'll make Vernon Dursley the most unlucky man in the world." said Inspector Homes with a sneer.

Harry didn't know what he meant by that, but his head was pounding too much to care. He laid his head against the Inspector's shoulder and fell asleep again.

Harry woke up on a hospital bed, covered with a warm blanket and a turban of gauze upon his temple. A nurse standing beside his bed.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" asked the nurse soothingly.

"Mmm hmm." Said Harry as he opened his eyes further.

"Your dad is here to take you home." Said the nurse with a smile. "And amazingly, you're well enough to go."

"Huh?" asked Harry in confusion. The door opened and Mr. Doppler came in.

"Hey son." said Mr. Doppler with a bright smile. "Ready to go home?"

Harry didn't say a word; he didn't know what Mr. Doppler was playing at. Harry knew that someone pretending to be a child's father and taking him away from somewhere safe was bad. But that didn't stop him from standing up carefully and walking beside Mr. Doppler.

Mr. Doppler didn't speak until they reached his car, a nicely kept four door sedan.

"Are you alright? How's your head?" asked Mr. Doppler.

"I'm fine." said Harry honestly. "Uh…how…why did you come and get me?" asked Harry.

"I heard you were kidnapped, worried almost to the point of insanity and when I caught wind you were in the hospital I decided to come and get you." said Mr. Doppler with a smile.

"But how did you know…?" asked Harry.

"Little Whinging is one large gossip chain, I happen to have a few shortcuts on that chain." said Mr. Doppler.

"But how were you able to get me out of the hospital? You aren't related to me….are you?" he added hardly daring to hope.

"No, no relation, but I asked Inspector Homes if I could give you a ride home." said Mr. Doppler. "We had to be discreet about getting you out of here; we don't want the Dursleys causing you any distress while you were resting."

Harry said nothing for the remainder of the journey back to Privet Drive, he didn't even speak to Uncle Vernon when Mr. Doppler dropped him off at his house. Mr. Doppler fixed Uncle Vernon with the fiercest glare that Harry had ever seen.

"He's had a rough day, Vernon, leave him be." said Mr. Doppler sternly, smiled at Harry and then left in his car.

Harry went straight to his cupboard and fell back to sleep. Due to his fear of the man that brought his nephew home, Uncle Vernon didn't hound the boy to make his dinner, choosing instead to order pizza, much to Dudley's delight.

Mr. Doppler drove to the Police Station and headed straight into the Inspector's office, where the Inspector and Chief were discussing what had happened that day.

"He's home safe now." said Mr. Doppler.

"Thank you sir." said the Chief humbly.

"Happy to help him." said Mr. Doppler with a smile. "Now about this Mr. Buckthorn…"

"Do you people want him?" asked the Chief.

"We'll let you play with him. He's not treacherous enough to take custody of." said Mr. Doppler. "But I'd like to have a word with him after he's sentenced."

"Of course. We can arrange that readily, but…what brings you to this area?" asked the Chief with a tone of concern in his voice.

"You're doing fine, nothing massive is around here, just doing an academic assessment. I'll be here till the end of the school year." said Mr. Doppler with a smile as he took the cup of coffee that the Chief offered him. "After that, I'll be out of your area."

"You fond of Harry too?" asked Inspector Homes.

"I am, and you?" said Mr. Doppler.

"Ever since James brought the boy around to visit the station." said Inspector Homes with a smile. "He comes around, brings a little cart of food. We get the best food in town."

"So he's the one that broke into Buckthorn's place?" said Mr. Doppler with a smile. "My Captain will love that."

"He's a brilliant boy, reckless but brilliant." said the Chief with a smirk.

"Wonder if he'll ever get another job like that." said Mr. Doppler thoughtfully.

"We can only hope that the next person doesn't try and kill him." said Inspector Homes.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

**QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER (That's right folks its back!) Favorite amusement park ride, describe it;D **

**I like them all, except rollercoasters, and things that make you go upside down or straight up and just freaking drop you. I'm acrophobic, I HATE heights!**


	25. Chapter 25 Harry's Failure and Success

**I almost forgot today was Friday! Oh my god! I can't believe I did that! I'm sorry!**

**I don't own Harry Potter!**

**RUSH JOB UPLOAD!**

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A short balding man stood outside of the Little Whining Police Department. He looked around nervously, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go through with this. He didn't have much choice in the matter, his store had been robbed several times and he needed help.

There wasn't a person in Great Britain that hadn't heard the fantastic tale of Mr. Buckthorn's security fiasco. Whoever the thief was, knew what they were doing and with the bounty of three million pounds, there was no need for that thief to ever work his criminal craft again. He also heard rumors that the police department had located the most skilled thief to relieve Mr. Buckthorn of his Forbidden Fruit ruby. It wouldn't surprise anyone if that was really true, I mean really, the man pretty much insulted the police department right on their front step!

There was one story going around that it was one of the Inspectors that did it. Inspector Homes, he thought it was, was one of the biggest suspects that the people had. The man knew everything about the theft, more so than even Scotland Yard did. If it wasn't true, then perhaps the man could give him some good advice.

The man slowly climbed the stairs to the station, opening the door for a small boy pushing a cart.

"What's the cart for, son?" asked the man kindly.

"I bring food for the police officers, sir." said the boy with a smile.

The man smiled warmly at the small boy. The boy was very small, with unruly head of black hair and pair of almond shaped eyes. The eyes were a brilliant shade of green, like a few emeralds in his jewelry store.

He watched as the boy pushed the cart into the elevator with a smile. Then he turned to the front desk where a police officer was answering phone calls.

"Can I help you sir?" asked the officer putting the phone down as the man came over.

"I'd like to…er…see Inspector Homes if I may." said the man.

"Sure just go to the elevators and take it up to the fifth floor." said the officer as he handed the man a pass card.

"What's this?" asked the man.

"It's a pass that says that your allowed upstairs. There's an officer on each floor by the stairs and the elevators." said the officer.

"That little boy didn't have a pass, will he be okay?" asked the man quietly.

"He'll be fine, he's in here all the time." said the officer with a smile.

The man made his way to the fifth floor and when he stepped out of the lift, he saw the boy taking money from different officers and giving them plates of delicious smelling food.

"Can I help you?" asked a man standing beside the boy with a cup of coffee in his hands.

"Oh, I'm looking for Inspector Homes." said the man quietly.

"That would be me." said the man with the cup of coffee.

"Ah! Well, I wanted to talk to you about something." said the man nervously.

"What about?" asked the Inspector.

"Well, you see…my name is Abberton, Charles Abberton. I own a jewelry store in Farthington, and every month so far this year, I've been robbed. Not armed robbery, but they break into my building and rob me of my choicest pieces of jewelry." Said Abberton earnestly.

"Did you report these thefts to the Farthington Police?" asked Inspector Homes.

"Yes sir, and they've never caught the scoundrel! They just keep coming, again and again I've been robbed! I've tried everything!" said Mr. Abberton.

"What can I do for you then?" asked Inspector Homes.

"Well, I heard about the Forbidden Fruit ruby, and frankly, I could use the same person who took care of that security to take care of mine, tell me where I'm going wrong." said Mr. Abberton.

Harry didn't let it show, but he was paying close attention.

"Question: Why should he come and test your security system, what's in it for him?" asked Inspector Homes, trying to shield the boy with his own body and yet not make it obvious he was doing so.

"I would pay him, a hundred thousand pounds, a small fee to stop me from losing almost my entire inventory." said Mr. Abberton.

Inspector Homes looked at the man with an inquisitive look. "I'll see what I can do and get back to you as soon as I can." said the Inspector quietly.

"Thank you sir!" said Mr. Abberton handing the Inspector his business card and then leaving quickly.

Harry walked into the Inspector's office.

"So, what do you think?" asked the Inspector.

"I don't know if I can. I mean, Mr. Buckthorn left the blueprints of his house here. I've never been to Farthington." said Harry.

"Never hurts to try and help someone." said Inspector Homes. "But it's completely up to you. You can't be arrested or cited when you've been invited to go inside a building after hours." He reassured the boy.

Harry looked down slowly, but then looked back up. His eyes were alight with green fire.

A week later, they drove all the way to Farthington in waning hours in the day. They had informed Mr. Abberton that the…security tester would be showing up and that everything would be fine. Inspector Homes wished Harry good luck and waited for him to come out, with a necklace that was supposed to prove that he got in and out without detection.

Inspector Homes sat in his car, drinking his large cup of coffee. It was no small feat to get Harry out of the Dursley's house late that night. Harry had to sneak a key to the front door in order to escape. He didn't feel very guilty about taking Harry out of the house at that time of night. Harry was pretty much the adopted son of the police department in all but official paperwork.

He loved the little boy as if he were he were his flesh and blood. He didn't want the boy to get hurt or get into danger, but he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching over the boy, almost at all times.

Suddenly a bell rang out from inside the building and a flashing light came from the inner chambers. Inspector Homes jerked himself out of the car and nearly ran to the building, when he saw Harry running towards him. He scrambled into the car and instinctively Inspector Homes jumped in as well and drove off.

"What happened?" said Inspector Homes, looking worriedly at the ashen face of the boy.

"I screwed up, big time." said Harry panting. "I couldn't even get in half way!"

"Want to try again another time?" asked the Inspector, "Or forget it?" He wanted to give the boy a choice, he would have supported the boy in either direction he wished to choose.

"I wanna give it one more shot. Is there a way you can get a hold of Mr. Abberton, so I can take another try?" asked Harry.

"Sure thing, but we'll do it tomorrow night. Time I got you back to bed." said Inspector Homes driving back to Little Whining.

Harry reached behind his seat and pulled a woolen blanket from the backseat and wrapped his small body around in it. In less than five minutes, he was asleep.

The next day, the Inspector called Mr. Abberton.

"Hello, Mr. Abberton? This is Inspector Homes, how are you?" asked the Inspector with a cordial air.

"Fine sir…just fine…but I've been robbed again." said Mr. Abberton.

"….what?" asked Inspector Homes, it was like he was hit in the head with a frying pan.

"Last night, it wasn't what you were supposed to take." said Mr. Abberton.

"When was this?" asked Inspector Homes quickly.

"Sometime during last night, I discovered it missing when I came to turn the alarm off. Did you, I mean, your man take something else by mistake?" asked Mr. Abberton.

"No, the man I sent in didn't even get halfway." said the Inspector softly.

"And he's trustworthy?" asked Mr. Abberton quietly.

"As honest as a newborn babe." said the Inspector crisply.

"Yet he's a thief." said Mr. Abberton quietly.

"Not a thief, just someone who needed the money that Buckthorn was offering." said Inspector Homes stiffly. "Besides, he received three million pounds, he doesn't need to work again for the rest of his life. What would anyone need to steal after getting that much money."

Mr. Abberton didn't have a remark for that.

Harry then came in the room, with a hamburger, fruit salad and a large helping of coleslaw. Inspector Homes placed a hand over the receiver end of the phone.

"How far did you get into the jewelry store?" asked Inspector Homes quietly.

"I didn't even make it into the main room, the entire place was rigged up so tight." said Harry.

"Didn't you say that you screwed up?" asked Inspector Homes.

"I did, big time. I accidentally set off one of the alarms the moment I took the grate off of the air duct." said Harry.

"So someone came in before we got there, but that's not possible, we saw them lock up the doors." said the Inspector. "So that means…"

"That whoever took it, before we got there." said Harry slowly.

That night, they drove once again to Farthington, and walked in with . The jewelry owner couldn't understand why the Inspector brought the little boy that pushed the food cart around, but if the man could tell him why he was being robbed once a night, then he could bring anyone he wanted into his place of business.

The store was still open, and there was a pair of employees inside carefully placing the merchandise in the assorted safes in the back for safe keeping. Harry looked at them as he held onto Inspector's belt, one was an middle-aged man, and the other one was a younger woman with a ring in her nose.

"Mr. Abberton! What brings you here tonight?" asked the man with a smile.

"I thought I'd bring an old friend and his son over to see my store." said Mr. Abberton reciting the script that Inspector Homes wanted him to say.

Harry walked around the glass cases, looking at each glass intimately. He saw beautiful stones, of various colors, shapes, sizes and arrangements. Harry wanted to buy everything here with the leftover money he earned from testing Mr. Buckthorn's system, and give it to Mrs. McFinn.

Something however caught his eye; he looked at the velvet liner in the glass case. There was something missing, Mr. Abberton told them that they didn't sell any necklaces that day, but there was one missing. The man and young woman hadn't put any of the jewelry on that side of the room away, but where did this one necklace go?

Harry watched the man and woman closely as he walked over to the Inspector.

"There's a necklace missing." He whispered into the man's ear.

The Inspector looked at the boy and smiled. He turned to Mr. Abberton and smiled. "You do much business here, Bruce?"

"A fair amount of business." said Mr. Abberton. "I've sold two bracelets and a few rings today."

"No necklaces?" asked Inspector Homes. "That's what my wife loves more than anything." He added with a smile, allowing the boy to watch the two.

Harry saw one of the two people looked over at the coat rack nervously. One nice looking coat was hanging on it, and he could see a slight bulge coming from it. He looked beyond it, seeing a small corridor.

Harry walked over to Mr. Abberton, hopping from one foot to the other.

"Do you have a bathroom?" asked Harry earnestly.

Mr. Abberton pointed towards the back of the room. Harry hurried in the direction which Mr. Abberton pointed. Harry then turned, as he ran, to face the Inspector.

"I'll be right back!" he said, but then he "accidentally" crashed into the coat rack.

SMASH!

Harry landed with a crash on top of the coat.

"I'm sorry!" said Harry quickly as he picked the coat up. He made sure to grab the coat up, upside down. Out of the pocket, came a small strand of silver and diamonds came trinkling out.

"What the?" asked the young woman quickly.

"What's the meaning of this Victor?" asked Mr. Abberton in shock.

"Come here, Harry." said Inspector Homes quickly. Harry hurried as fast as he could to the Inspector, but Victor didn't make a move towards the boy.

"I wouldn't hurt him." said the man fretfully.

"Answer my question!" said Mr. Abberton shortly.

"I just needed the money." said the man guiltily. He sank slowly into a chair and buried his face. Harry stared at the man wonderingly.

"What do you need the money for?" asked Inspector Homes noticing Harry's concerned look.

The man wiped his face with a handkerchief from his pocket. "My son and wife died a few months ago, and my wife and I are taking care of their five children. Money is very tight, and with the smallest one's recent illness…we're just desperate. I swear, Mr. Buckthorn! I would have paid you back before the inventory were to roll around, I just needed some of the smaller things to pay for the hospital bills!" said the man pleading with the owner.

Mr. Abberton looked uncertainly at the man.

Harry tugged Inspector Homes' shirt and pulled him down to his level. Harry whispered quietly into the man's ear, Inspector Homes smiled.

"Mr. Abberton, if the money for the jewelry were repaid, by tomorrow afternoon, would you press charges?" asked the Inspector.

"Of course." said Mr. Abberton.

"I can't pay it all back tomorrow!" said the man turning pale.

"Any time before inventory would be wonderful." said Mr. Abberton.

"I didn't say that you would be repaying it. I know someone that will do that for you." said Inspector Homes for a smile. "How much is the total you owe?"

"Almost fifty thousand pounds." said the old man wearily.

"Easily taken care of." said Inspector Homes clapping his hand together. "I'll bring the money tomorrow."

"_You _have that much?" asked Mr. Abberton in shock.

"No, but the security tester would most likely be happy to lend a hand. He knows what it's like to be desperate." said the Inspector.

"How will I repay him?" asked the man ,fearing the worse. "What will the interest be?"

"No interest, you just pay him back a little bit at a time, I'm betting he'd like to help you raise your kids too." said the Inspector.

Harry gave the Inspector's hand a squeeze, signaling to him that he agreed.

"Just who are you?" asked the woman, who was watching the events in shock and alarm.

"Inspector Homes." said the man holding Harry's hand.

The old man flinched. "Are you going to arrest me?"

"You really are shocked out of your mind." said the Inspector with a smile.

Inspector Homes went on to tell him that as long as the money was paid back by someone, and Mr. Abberton, he had no interest in arresting him, not mentioning the fact that Farthington was a mite out of his jurisdiction.

The next day, Harry brought the small briefcase full of money to the police station. He snuck it inside the cooler part of the pushcart and handed it to the Inspector.

"It should be there." said Harry earnestly. "Can I go with you tonight?"

"Did you finish that essay Mr. Doppler wanted you to do?" asked Inspector Homes with a raised brow. "You didn't do it the last two nights, and you said it's due tomorrow."

"Uh…" said Harry looking guilty.

"I'll take that as a no. Homework comes first, road trips last." said the Inspector with a bright smile.

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**Thanks for reading sorry about the long wait!**

**Question of the chapter! When was the last time you were late for something**

**SORRY I WAS LATE WITH THIS!**


	26. Chapter 26 Painful Party

**I made damn sure that I remembered to upload this ;D Sorry it's so short, I wasn't all that motivated to type.**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Months went past as Harry continued to deliver food to the police department during the day, and while at night, requests for him to test security systems went through the roof. Especially since Harry and Inspector Homes discovered who was stealing from the jewelry store in Farthington. It seemed that someone at the store began talking to others and then the news of the mysterious security tester spread across the country side like wildfire.

Insurance companies found out about Harry's little hobby, though not that Harry was the one doing it, and bombarded Inspector Homes' phone with requests to test different security protected buildings. Each company offered Harry, who the Little Whinging Police Department fondly called "Shadow", a large sum for Harry's services.

When Harry could get away from the Dursleys, he would leave the house in the middle of the night and set off to where the Insurance companies wanted him to go. For the most part, he'd be able to sneak in, grab what he was assigned to take and then bring it back the next day covertly. However sometimes, the place where he'd try and break into would be expertly guarded and Harry wouldn't make it halfway in without setting off an alarm. He'd let the respective Insurance agency know that the place was adequately protected.

The fee that he would charge was transferred to a special account, under Inspector Homes name. Once Harry turned eighteen, the account would be turned over to Harry to do with as he willed.

It wasn't until after his tenth birthday, with almost nightly practice, that Harry developed the skills he worked so hard for, to almost perfection. Unfortunately, when that time came, Mr. Doppler had to leave Harry on his own, much to the boy's dismay, but he promised that he'd be looking out for the kid every chance he got. And he did, unbeknownst to Harry, but he couldn't be there the entire time.

But one night, Harry couldn't go out to work, cause his "family" needed him home.

New neighbors had just moved onto their street, and rumor had it that the lady of the household was a blueblood. Most of the women in the neighborhood wanted to think that of themselves, so they wore expensive dresses and tried to wear their flashiest jewelry. It was unknown how the rumors got started; it was either one of the nosey neighbors, or the new woman herself that started the rumors. Aunt Petunia always said she couldn't stand gossip and hardly believed any of it.

That's why she wanted Harry to cook the best meal he could and was out buying herself a new dinner dress. She decided to "welcome" them to the neighborhood with a little party at her home. With only her "perfect" family, the new (rumored blueblood) family, and plus the little brat invited . Though if she had her way, the boy would be kept out of the way, and just do what he was told.

Aunt Petunia told her husband that they were to have a party, though she wasn't' all together sure that he heard her, he only grunted, which was never a good conversational enhancer. But she knew that if the party preparations were already started, then he couldn't say it won't happen.

She'd have to send Vernon and Dudley's suits to the cleaners and throw the boy's shirt in the wash, it had been a long time since she had a party and since it was a possibility the boy would be seen and he had to look decent. It was a shirt that she found in a cheap little second hand store, he needed a special shirt that would give off the impression that they spent more than just the two pounds a month on him. Just in case the brat's benefactors came to visit.

For the past nine years, someone had been sending them a hefty sum each year. They were not stupid people, they knew what it was for, it was for the upkeep of the boy. Vernon kept a strict ledger of the money that was sent to them and stashed the book somewhere in the house. He kept records, and wrote down each pence piece, before he deposited it in Dudley's trust fund account.

She felt that Dudley deserved the money, much more than Lily's son did. Lily's son didn't have the character, the honesty, the _future_ that her little Duddykins did.

The afternoon of the dinner party, Harry came into the living room. He threw his tattered and frayed backpack into the cupboard and walked into the kitchen. He looked as if nothing in his life gave him any joy, any more. He worked really hard on that look; Uncle Vernon loved seeing him like that. Uncle Vernon's happiness kept Harry's being safe and sound.

He walked into the kitchen and took out bowls and other assorted cooking utensils out of the cupboards and drawers. He reached up and took his old battered white notebook and flipped through the pages. Where was that recipe that he found and wanted to try? Ah, here it was, brandied pepper steak. As Harry began to take ingredients out of the fridge and pantries, Aunt Petunia came stomping in.

"What do you think you're doing?" she shrieked. She wore a flowered apron and had gloves and a spray bottle of cleaner in one hand and a white cloth in the other.

"Fixing dinner, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon said he wanted steaks tonight." said Harry not looking at her, but staring fixedly at the recipe book.

"I've invited the new neighbors over to eat dinner. I can't serve them steaks!" Petunia screeched. She stamped her foot and slammed a hand down on the page Harry was reading from.

"I want to have a fruit appetizer, wine, salad, lobster, and dessert!" said Aunt Petunia ticking off the different meal courses. Harry stared at her in shock.

"You realize I'm going to be cooking all afternoon, right?" he muttered.

"Well then you best get going about doing it!" she snapped. "Here's some money, go and get the things I want!"

"You didn't tell me what you really wanted!" said Harry shortly. "What exactly is it that you want?"

"Don't argue, get going! Oh and by the way, Aunt Marge is coming as well, she's staying for a while." said Aunt Petunia as she left the room. "So everything must be absolutely perfect."

Harry groaned and slammed the money down on the counter. He picked up the notebook again and flipped through it quickly. He continued to flip through the book until he spotted the recipes he wanted. He took a spare piece of paper and wrote down the ingredients quickly and hurried out the door.

Almost thirty minutes later, Harry came back to Privet Drive, staggering under the large and heavy bags that easily outweighed him.

As he laid them down on the counters, a loud booming voice came from lounge. Harry flinched.

"BOY! What are you doing?" shouted Uncle Vernon, stomping into the kitchen.

"Making dinner, Uncle Vernon." said Harry as he placed the different foods on the counter.

"That doesn't look like steak and mushrooms." growled Uncle Vernon as he picked up the still moving lobsters.

"Aunt Petunia invited the new neighbors over for dinner and she wanted to serve something special." said Harry tiredly. "And isn't Aunt Marge coming, too?"

Uncle Vernon growled and stomped out of the room. "Make sure you do things right."

While Uncle Vernon had his back to his young nephew, Harry rolled his eyes.

Harry worked as hard and as fast as he could in order to set the food up to Dursley standard. He had to almost lock Dudley out of the kitchen just so he could make the dinner without having to run to the store a second time.

For the dinner, Harry had made Champagne Lobster; he had to go through Aunt Petunia just to get one of the bottles of champagne from Uncle Vernon's wine collection. Uncle Vernon loved telling Harry "No." But his wife? His son? Never.

Along with the lobsters, there was a giant bouquet of wild looking flowers, but when someone would look closer, they would see that it was made entirely of fruit. That in itself took Harry almost two hours to make them absolutely perfect. He had learned how to do this from Mrs. McFinn, which was another one of her great talents.

The lobsters laid on silver platters, a large bowl of multicolored salad, and a bottle of chilled wine in a tub of ice. Then in the corner, sat a giant chocolate torte, with chocolate rosettes just waiting to be enjoyed.

Almost a minute before the party, Harry, who was wearing a faded black button up shirt, carried several china plates and sets of silverware wrapped neatly in napkins, Despite the fadedness of his shirt, he looked quite charming and gentle (Mrs. Figg even said so when Aunt Petunia had her over for a small party). He looked quickly over his different masterpieces and smiled warmly.

A doorbell chimed all the way into the kitchen and Harry heard Aunt Petunia's false happy voice coming from the hall.

"So happy you could come!" said Aunt Petunia. "Oh and here's Marge!"

Harry groaned softly and finished placing the garnishes on the lobsters before putting it in the warmed oven. Hoping to drag out Aunt Marge's stay in hiding, Harry continued to prepare the meals for their debut appearance, but the time didn't drag on as long as he would have wanted. Harry whisked the food out to the table, unseen by the guests who sat in the lounge.

After Harry had lit the candles on the table, the doorbell rang once more. Harry's head snapped up quickly.

"I'll get it Petunia, dear." said Uncle Vernon cheerfully and walked to the door. As he passed the entrance to the dining room, he sent a warning look to Harry. Harry was frozen in place, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Harry could hear the door open, and then a young man's voice coming from the door.

"Evening sir, I'm Higgens from the Police Station, is Harry Potter here?"

Harry's eyes widened even further in fear.

The dinner party went smoothly, which was amazing, especially at the arrival of the police officer. The guests didn't realize that something was wrong when they left. The lobster's shell was left in pieces, as per normal, the flower bouquet was stripped of it's fruit blossoms, the salad was reduced to stray strips of green and purple lettuce, and the chocolate torte was reduced to only a few smears of chocolate cream. But that wasn't what was wrong; it was the fact that they saw Aunt Petunia cleaning her kitchen with a large scowl on her face. It was only wrong because Aunt Petunia normally loved cleaning.

As Aunt Petunia cleaned her kitchen, Harry was lying against the wall, apparently knocked out and sporting a blackened eye, bleeding temple and a bruised cheek.

A large woman, with a slight mustache, was sitting in one of the large, plush chairs. She was gripping a cane and patting the head of a large bulldog. In the bulldog's teeth they saw shreds of cloth dangling from the dog's mouth. The shreds from the dog's mouth were from the pants Harry was wearing, and several trickles of blood flowed from his leg.

"Good Ripper, good boy. Seems his training is working out just fine." said the large woman happily.

"Let's see if the little beast learned _his _lesson." said Uncle Vernon nastily. He pulled Harry roughly to his feet by the poor boy's collar. "I'm waiting."

Harry hung limply in his Uncle's grip, he groaned softly and his eyes fluttered open.

"What do you say?" said Uncle Vernon putting his large face very close to Harry's small, thin one.

"I'm sorry." said Harry in a hoarse whisper.

"For what?" said Uncle Vernon nastily.

"I…I don't know…" said Harry quietly.

"The police came asking for you. You've been to station, haven't you? I've warned you, I didn't want to catch you going there…ever…again…" said Uncle Vernon angrily.

"Nasty brutes, police officers, meddlers every one of them." said the woman smugly. "Not a decent one in the lot."

"YOUR WRONG! ABOUT ALL OF THEM! THEY'RE GOOD PEOPLE!" shouted Harry angrily. He tried to wrench his body away from his uncle and slapped his Uncle square in the face with all the strength he had. But against the large man, it did very little.

Uncle Vernon and the woman blinked, the large woman sneered wickedly as Uncle Vernon's fist rose and fell, and Harry's world grew dark.

The door to the cupboard flew open and Harry was flung inside so forcefully that he slammed against the back wall and landed on the dirty, lumpy mattress, he was bleeding now profusely from the small wound on his head, and from a bloodied nose.

A half hour later, the door opened once again. It was Aunt Petunia, and she had a small first aid box in her hands, and a small bottle of water. She dabbed a small gauze patch laced with ointment on the cut on his head. Harry gave a low groan and his eyes fluttered open again. She helped him drink from the bottle of water.

"You'd best tell your police friends not to come around here anymore. The next time, I'm not helping you." she snapped quietly.

"Thank you, Aunt Petunia." he said weakly, sitting up and gently taking the box from her. She snatched it back and finished patching him up.

Harry leaned heavily onto the wall of his cupboard and closed his eyes once again. Briefly relishing the touch of his Aunt, the touch he never got from her, a touch he interpreted as her way of showing him love.

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**Thanks for reading!**

_**Question of the Chapter: What do you do to motivate yourself?**_


	27. Chapter 27 Change for the Better

**Okay, You'll notice that we are now getting into where the books are starting out at, the only bits from the books is SOME of the dialogue, I've got to warn you though, if a chapter from the books has a lot of dialogue then I might be using a lot then, but I will be putting Harry's own thoughts and a bit more into the observations. **

**We won't just be going in and doing the book chapter by chapter, I wouldn't do that to do and that would get REALLY boring after a while. Needless to say, this story may have to be separated into different parts, book one and so one. If I stuck to just one book, we'd be hitting over a hundred chapters easy. **

_**NOTE: **__**These phrases are from the actual books**__** (Italized and underlined) **_**THERE AREN'T A LOT OF THEM!**

**These are mine. (plain text) though some are italizied, those are Harry's thoughts.**

**I don't own Harry Potter and I especially don't own the underlined bits****.**

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Almost a whole year went by uneventfully, his business of testing security systems went as smoothly as it possibly could, he was even setting up appointments for several different companies and businesses. He had to be careful though, as to not let his uncle see that he was gone almost every night.

Just as everything was going like clockwork, and almost as if it _were_ on a schedule, everything changed.

Dudley's birthday should have just been like every other one, with him getting up to make Dudley's birthday breakfast. Which was nothing different than any other day; he still ate the same mountain of bacon, eggs and toast. Dudley opening his presents, boasting about how many he got and complaining if he didn't get the number he desired.

However this year changed, sort of for the better and then again, sort of not.

That year, like most years, Dudley and one of his friends (quote-unquote) to somewhere fun for the day while he stayed with Mrs. Figg, the neighborhood crazy cat-lady. Harry didn't think she was all that crazy, a little furball happy, but not crazy. She was the first person that told him, so that he believed it, that he could cook and cook wonderfully.

This year however, he didn't have to stay with her; she had broken her leg by tripping over one of her numerous cats. Most likely Mr. Buff, he loved to lay right where it's most inconvenient for people. Out of all the cats, that one he liked least of all, that stupid feline tripped him up and broke one of Mrs. Figg's best china tea cups. He couldn't believe his luck when he discovered that this year he got to go with the Dursleys on Dudley's birthday outing.

They were going to the zoo this year, though Harry could safely bet all the money in his secret account that it wasn't going to much fun for him. Not if he had to go with the Dursleys and Dudley's friend.

He had planned to either spend the day at home, and have a secret go on Dudley's computer or sneak on down to the Police Station and hang out with Inspector Homes. Oh well, life isn't perfect, and why should it start now of all times?

They piled into the car, along with one of Dudley's friends, Piers, with the traditional warning from Uncle Vernon that he'd be given solitary confinement till next Christmas. Just how stupid was his uncle? There was no way that he'd risk ever getting out and about normally again!

Though he did come really close to screwing it all to hell, just because he began to daydream about his last job, but he was jolted out of his daydream by his uncle cursing out a group of motorcyclists.

_"...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums, " he said, as a motorcycle overtook them._

_"I had a dream about a motorcycle, " said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."_

Harry groaned inwardly, now he had done it. Rule number one at the Dursley household was never ask questions, rule number two was never mention things that can't be real. He didn't quite know what made him speak that out loud, but whatever it was, he'd have to fix that right quick.

_Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" _

_"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."_

Once again he contemplated the intellectual level of his uncle. But during the rest of the day, he couldn't help but feel that the dream he had suddenly remembered, would have more of an impact than he realized.

And boy was he right.

They had arrived at the park without any more incidents happening; he even managed to get his hands on a cold treat. Granted, it was a lemon ice pop, and he got it out of pity and not from his Uncle, but it wasn't bad. He strolled around the zoo relatively by himself. The Dursleys and Piers were out of arms reach and Harry liked to keep them there.

Harry paused for a moment in front of the gorilla cage, and thought that it was Dudley stuck behind those bars for a brief moment. He smirked in spite of himself.

"Look Mommy, that gorilla looks just like that boy over there." said a little girl pointing towards Dudley. Harry's ice pop almost went down his throat from him holding his laughter in.

"Now be nice honey, it's not right to say bad things about others." said her mother sternly.

"_She WAS being nice." _thought Harry with a smile. He walked swiftly away before Dudley could hear and blame him for the little girl's words.

Later on, they stopped at the restaurant in the zoo, only because Dudley was howling that he was starving, and people were staring in the direction he was in to see if an animal had gotten loose from one of the cages. Harry rolled his eyes, as if Dudley even knew what that word even meant let alone what starving really felt like. They strolled quickly into the restaurant, and sat down in one of the booths. Due to Dudley's girth, Harry had to pull a chair up from another table and sit at the end. One of the waitresses came up, with a little notepad and took their orders.

"What'll you have folks?" she asked with a smile.

"We'll have three double elephant burgers, three large fries, two teas, two Knickerbocker glories, and a tuna melt with a salad." said Uncle Vernon as he pointed to Dudley, Piers, himself and Aunt Petunia.

"What about you, lad?" asked the woman kindly.

Harry looked at Uncle Vernon who sent him a warning look. "He'll have a grilled cheese and water."

"Any desert kiddo?" asked the woman.

"He has a delicate constitution, don't want to risk it." said Uncle Vernon quickly.

The waitress looked sympathetically over to Harry and walked away.

_A delicate constitution_? Apparently Uncle Vernon went from being a complete idiot back to someone who could come up with a decent excuse again.

The lunch went pretty smoothly, Harry had enjoyed his sandwich and thankfully the water didn't taste as bad as some places were known to be. The only hiccup during lunch came from Dudley when he saw his giant Knickerbocker Glory.

"I wanted more ice cream on top!" said Dudley loudly, as he scooped it into his mouth.

"Dudley, dear…there was three whole scoops…" said Aunt Petunia softly.

"_There wasn't enough!_" shouted Dudley and slammed the almost completed glass down.

"Alright son, we'll get you another one. Get us another one, this time, put another scoop of ice cream in it." said Uncle Vernon.

"_Three more!_" said Dudley stubbornly as he shoved the old not completely finished Glory away.

Uncle Vernon took it and shoved it over to Harry.

_Well, there's something at least._ thought Harry as he dipped into gelatin and last of the cream. The waitress looked suspiciously at the family; Harry could almost see the thoughts behind her eyes. Uncle Vernon just went back on his statement, right in front of everyone.

_His wits are slipping again._ thought Harry with a mirthful smirk.

It wasn't until they decided to go through the Reptile House, did the whole day go straight to hell.

Hours later, he found lying in his cupboard, freshly made marks dug deep into his back. He didn't do anything wrong! All he did…was talk to a snake and have a conversation with it…what the hell was going on? How could _he _talk to a snake? And where the hell did that glass go to?

These weird things kept happening out of the blue! Like the time that the teacher's wig turning blue, the wind picking him up and carrying him up to the school roof, or the shrinking of the most horrible looking hand-me-downs, and the buzz cuts that Aunt Petunia gave him, what strange phenomenon kept harassing him?

Whatever it was, he hoped it would either show itself or go the hell away. Because it was seriously messing his life up.

A few days later, Harry was having a nice normal day; he was being given brand new, sopping wet, gray colored hand-me-downs for his new school uniform. What a pleasant pre-birthday present. Dudley came down in his nice new Smelting's outfit.

_Smeltings_ what kind of name was that? At least he was going to school with a normal name. Being separated from Dudley was the highlight of his life! And the school he was going had the one of the better chemistry labs in the country, even the teachers seemed to be a decent sort. Inspector Homes himself went to that school when he was younger and expressed his praise to his old teachers that a brilliant young man was going to his old school.

He went to go get the morning mail, by order-slash-threat of his uncle and saw something he had never seen before.

A letter for him! But he looked at it a little crestfallen, it wasn't from Mrs. McFinn or a message from Inspector Homes. It had his cupboard on it, he had only told Dr. Clark, Mr. and Mrs. McFinn and the Inspector, but it wasn't from anyone he knew. And yet it was right there for anyone to read:

_Mr. H. Potter_

_The Cupboard Under the Stairs_

_4 Privet Drive_

_Little Whinging _

_Surrey._

It had to be more of this nonsense that kept falling around him. Especially because the post office wouldn't even think of delivering it without a stamp, and there was no sign of one anywhere on the envelope. There wasn't any sticky residue if someone had even attempted to put a stamp on.

His uncle shouted something from the kitchen, if he didn't sound angry nor had the air of a command or new order, Harry didn't pay attention to what he said. He thought nothing more about the lack of a stamp on _his _letter, as he walked into the dining room with _his_ letter. _His_, he loved the sound of that word, he didn't get to use it often. He walked past Uncle Vernon, dropping the man's mail beside the his plate and took his own letter to his seat.

"_Marge is ill, ate a funny whelk_." _said Uncle Vernon._

"Bout time she gets sick off the wretched things." thought Harry fiercely as he ripped the envelope open. The paper was heavy and he had never seen a wax seal on actual modern day letters before in his life. He hadn't seen quill written letters before either, but he supposed that whoever was writing the letter, preferred old fashioned ways. It had either been an elderly lady who still had dreams of being an official lady of the royal court, or a stubborn old man that wouldn't accept the change in the times.

But this crest on the back, he had never seen a crest like that one before, four animals and a strange motto on it. _Never poke a sleeping dragon in the eye_? What the hell was that supposed to mean, aside from the obvious? He most likely got the translation wrong.

He didn't notice, however that his piggish cousin saw him with a letter in his hands, and if Harry had something that was reasonably new, Dudley wanted it._"__Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"_

Of all the…isn't he allowed even the most basic and simplest things? And to think, most people took this bit of normalcy for granted, and for that matter, food. He was lucky to get the barest of table scraps from all the food he makes, and if Dudley doesn't get what he wants, then the entire meal is flung onto the carpet by an overturned table and they leave for a restaurant. The Dursley's were such wasteful people, Harry had to scrap old things and turn them into the things he needed just to get what he wants. It took him almost a whole year to repair the alarm clock that he relied on to get him up in the morning. He didn't even get to enjoy the letter, which seemed to have been made out of the same material as the envelope. If he had to hazard a guess, it was parchment, if the person stuck to their determination to keep to the old ways. Uncle Vernon ripped the letter and envelope right out of his hands.

"_Give that back! It's mine!"__said Harry._

"_Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon__._ Harry scowled.

While he never had received a letter before in his life, he thought that maybe Mrs. McFinn sent a postcard from wherever she was at. All of her postcards were sent to Inspector Homes and Inspector Homes would read to the boy what the letter was and he'd look at the picture on the front.

When Uncle Vernon read the letter, his small eyes widened in fear, even Aunt Petunia (who had mastered the art of sticking her nose where it didn't belong) was reading the letter also in terror. Harry looked at his Uncle's face and felt his stomach churn. '_Note to self, don't eat porridge for a long while_.'

"_Oh Vernon__!_" said Aunt Petunia looking at the letter as if she were going to faint.

Harry stared angrily at his Uncle, silently demanding that he get the letter that has his goddamn name on it! But his glare quickly away when he saw Dudley smack his own father with his Smelting stick.

"_I wanna read it__!_" wailed Dudley.

"You can't read anyway!" thought Harry swiftly, but then he finally felt anger surging through his mental barriers.

_"__I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine"_

_"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside it's envelope. _

_Harry didn't move. _

_"__I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted._

He knew he was treading dangerous water, but he didn't care, this was something from the outside world, not associated with his work, but something for _him_. And he was not going to let them keep it from him.

_"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley._

_"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. _

Harry didn't mind losing to Dudley, he couldn't hope to match Dudley's bullish strength. If he and Dudley had been fighting with honorable rules, the outcome might have been different, but Dudley always used dirty tactics.

So while Dudley took the keyhole and peered through it, Harry laid flat on the floor and listened to the conversation that transpired between his Uncle and Aunt. What they said didn't make any sense to Harry. They were talking about what seemed to be a group of people that wanted Harry for something. They spoke of ignoring the letter, and something about 'stamping out' the dangerous nonsense.

This made him wonder, this 'dangerous nonsense' they mentioned, and could it be the phenomenon that followed him around? Well, if his Aunt and Uncle didn't like it, then his opinion changed quickly. If they didn't like it, then he loved it.

He spent the entire day, except for when he delivered lunch to the officers at the Police Department, mulling about the house. Harry was in his cupboard, reading a book under a battery operated light.

To his utter amazement, Uncle Vernon stuck his head and a bit of his shoulders into the cupboard once he got home. He had only been known to throw Harry inside the cupboard or yell at him through the door, he had never actually come inside.

_"__Where's my letter?" said Harry, "Who's writing to me?"_

_"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it__."_

Burned it? He burned the only letter he had ever gotten? And a mistake? There is no mistake, it had his name, the town, the street and even his cupboard on it!

_"__It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." _

_"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon__._

Harry then saw his uncle smile, a smile that was never a good sign.

_"__Er-yes, Harry-about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking...you're really getting a bit big for it__."_

"I was too big for it when you put me in here the very first time." muttered Harry darkly.

_"...__we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom__."_

This took Harry aback slightly. What the..._NOW_ he was going to get the bedroom? The bedroom he had pleaded and begged to get for the past five years? The bedroom that only housed Dudely's broken and unwanted toys? Harry couldn't help but question it.

_"__Why?" said Harry._

_"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now__."_

He grabbed the armload of possessions that he had squirreled away into his cupboard and went up to his "new" room. All he had to his name was a five pairs of pants, socks underwear and five shirts, a few army figurines, and some awards from school that he had earned.

He arranged his meager possessions on one of the dust covered dressers and side table, and sat on his new and first real bed. He opened the window to allow fresh air into the room, basking in the setting sun, and the newly given entrance into the house.

He wouldn't have to use the key under the potted plant outside the door, just to get into the house, now he could just climb in the window. Over his musings, he could hear Dudley yell and whine indignantly.

_"__I don't want him in there...I need that room...make him get out..."_bawled Dudley.

Harry could only smirk, Dudley wasn't going to get his way, Uncle Vernon had to of been planning Dudley's tantrum all day today, and weighed the pros and cons. Though, Harry couldn't quite see what all the pros were. Maybe due to that letter he figured someone was going to come and see what Harry's living conditions were and wanted to put them on a false scent.

The letter. He wished he had the notion to open the letter in the hall, instead of at the table. He'd rather be in his cupboard after reading the letter, than up here without it. For the first time in a while, he slept like a log.

_Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back__. _

Harry had seen Dudley throw tantrums, but he had never seen one this bad. Dudley could easily get violent, but _this_ violence was a new one on him. Harry had to go and save the tortoise that had been tossed and dropped it off at the local animal shelter. The poor thing had a crack in his shell and several cuts from the glass. The people at the shelter told him that Chomper would be fine, and that they'd give him a nice new home.

In order for Harry to get away with giving Dudley's pet to a better home, Harry had to find a dead turtle along the side of the pond in the park, take the old shell and show it to Dudley. It didn't look anything like Chomper's shell, but he would never notice the difference.

"Where's my turtle?" grunted Dudley stupidly while they were outside. Harry showed him the shell.

"He got hurt, ditched this and ran away." lied Harry. Dudley, as stupid as he was, bought it easily and went to his mother to demand another pet. HIs mother, after getting kicked hard in the shin, wasn't about to give him a pet, which sent him off on another fit.

The next day didn't fare any better for Harry, this time, his usual chore of fetching the mail was given to a grumbling Dudley. Harry could hear him smacking the sides of the wall with his stick, and then the smacking stopped.

_"__There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive-__'" _shouted Dudley.

Both Harry and Uncle Vernon ran out to the front door, Uncle Vernon tried to wrestle the letter out of his son's hand, while his nephew wrapped his arms around his thick neck. Dudley retaliated by smacking both his father and cousin with his Smelting Stick. Harry got conked right above the eye and fell off his Uncle's back and into the umbrella stand.

When Harry looked up, he saw his letter in his Uncle's hands. _"__Go to your cupboard-I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley-go-just go."_

Both Harry and Dudley trudged up the stairs, though Dudley was doing more shoving and less walking as they went into each of their rooms. Harry wanted his letter, and he wanted it bad.

Harry decided that he would get up quite early and go down and fetch his own letter. He'd wait for the postman and meet him right on the street.

What could possibly go wrong?

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**Thanks for reading please review!**

**Now don't worry, I'm only going to use the spoken bits in the books, and it's not going to be plastered all over the place, I underlined those so you can just skim over them. It's still going to have my added touches as the massive majority, so it's not going to be just like opening up the books and reading it. I've seen other stories like that and it gets to be a bit boring.**

**However, the bit where Hagrid comes, that might be a bit plastered with the dialogue from the books, but it's not going to be just that. Also, I thought I'd do this one as a bigger chapter, cause, well…it just went that way ;D**


	28. Chapter 28 Running From The Post

**Man, I had little to no motivation to type lately, thank god I got this chapter done before lethargy kicked in. I hope you all are liking this!**

**I don't own Harry Potter ;D**

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Harry woke up extremely early the next morning, just as his alarm clock began to ring. Harry threw his clothes on quickly and quietly and expertly navigated through the house without any illumination. He stepped over the squeaky stair and towards the door. His heart hammered loudly as he reached for the door.

Suddenly he found his foot standing on something that was a few inches off the ground and very squashy in some places.

**"**_AAAAARRRGH_**!"**

Harry recoiled and almost banged his head on the steps, when he backed up; he saw that he had just stepped on his Uncle's face. The lights from upstairs clicked on and Harry saw a nice little footprint right across his uncle's face. Uncle Vernon stood up and screamed at Harry at the top of his lungs. Harry braced himself for whatever blows were bound to come, but none did.

His uncle raised his hand, but lowered it slowly. "Go, go make me some tea."

Harry turned and hurried into the kitchen, he wasn't too sure what caused his Uncle not to strike him, but he didn't to pressure him into going through with his usual force of habit. He boiled up a full pot of his uncle's favorite tea and when it was done he brought it out to him. Even with two of his uncle's favorite biscuits.

When he got back to the front hall, he saw his uncle going through the letters, looking for the letter that might be there. He had a mad glint in his eye when he held the letter up. Harry took a step forward, hoping to reason with the half-crazed man.

_"I want-" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes._ Harry could feel anger wash over him and making his head pound. He knew his Uncle was most likely the cruelest man he had ever met, but frankly…to do this…was inhumane.

The day pretty much went downhill from there. When Aunt Petunia came down before breakfast, she announced that she was going to make the meals for the day. She wanted to test out her new cooking skills from her cooking classes. None of the males were real excited about that, especially after breakfast.

The menu consisted of, burnt toast, burnt sausage, burnt bacon, and for a switch, under-cooked eggs. Harry was impressed that she didn't burn the orange juice somehow. They all pretty much couldn't wait until the day was over, or until the stove blew up, whichever came first.

Despite Aunt Petunia's decision to cook that day, Uncle Vernon decided to stay home. His reason being that he wanted to board up the mail slot, though Harry wasn't too sure how that chore would take most of the day. Uncle Vernon took a few boards out of garage; the boards that came from an old desire of Aunt Petunia's. She wanted a garden shed put up in backyard, but…it never happened.

So he held the boards up to the mail slot and placed a few nails in his mouth. "Dudley, go and get me a hammer." said Uncle Vernon.

"Uncle Vernon, you let one of you associates from work borrow it." said Harry, "He didn't return it yet." Harry remembered that day, none of Uncle Vernon's business associates were all that

"Damn." said Uncle Vernon with a growl. "Well, Dudley go find something hard for me to pound the nails in then."

Dudley waddled out of the room and returned with a fruitcake in his hands. Harry recognized it as one of the fruitcakes that Aunt Petunia said she was going to make. Dudley handed it to his father, who looked at it and then stared at his son.

"I said get me something to nail these in." said Uncle Vernon. Dudley merely stared at him; Uncle Vernon continued to look at his boy. Just to show his son that a fruitcake wouldn't work quite well, he hammered the nail into the wood, and found that it worked just fine and it didn't break apart. "Works for me, I guess."

Harry and Dudley watched in slight amusement as Uncle Vernon continued to pound in the nails with the fruitcake until it finally crumbled in his hands and just then they heard Aunt Petunia's footsteps coming their way. They decided to hide out in the living room. If Aunt Petunia saw that, she'd have a fit.

"Here dear, I brought you a snack." said Aunt Petunia, she held out a plate of another square of fruitcake.

Uncle Vernon looked at it. "Thank you, dear." he took the fruitcake and began to finish pounding the nails in the board with it. Aunt Petunia stared hard at him.

_"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."_

_"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."_

_"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon._

After hearing that and watching his uncle use food to pound nails into a board, Harry figured that they would most likely be twice as sane as his uncle ever was.

The entire day went by as uneventful as it could be, except for them almost going hungry the entire day. Lunch consisted of some sort of casserole that Harry couldn't exactly pinpoint on what it was. Unfortunately there was plenty left over for dinner that night, Dudley tried to throw it away during his many trips to the fridge, but unfortunately his mother was in the kitchen the entire time. He couldn't get near enough to the trashcan to pitch it.

When dinnertime came they had the casserole and some sort of fish dish that still had some bones left in it. They tried to stomach down as much as they could so they wouldn't have to endure it the next day. Unbeknownst to Aunt Petunia, they each spent about twenty minutes in the bathroom either trying to get rid of the taste in their mouths or getting sick.

The next few days pretty was the same as in the ways of mail, every day more and more letters came, but they started coming in interesting ways. Some were crammed through the cracks in the windows and even the eggs that came from the milkman. Aunt Petunia even found some sprouting up from the ground right next to her zinnias.

On Sunday, Uncle Vernon decided to gloat loudly that there was no post on Sundays and that Harry wouldn't get any of those annoying letters. Though, Harry actually believed that his mysterious letter writer would find some way around that. If they were persistent enough to stick letters in egg cartons and shove them through almost every crack in the house, a Sabbath Day isn't going to stop them.

And he was right, all of a sudden, letters began shooting out of the kitchen chimney and landing on everyone and everything in the room. The Dursleys hid under the table as best they could while Harry reached up and tried to snatch one out of the air.

"Come on, come on!" thought Harry as his hand stretched out trying to reach one of the letters that either held some secret bit of information about his infant past, or there was someone who wanted to adopt him and take him away from the Dursleys! If that was the case, he needed to get his hands on it.

His uncle had other ideas however.

_"Out! OUT!"_

Harry was sent crashing into the wall outside the kitchen; he landed on his knees and was surprised that, despite his light weight, he still left a dent in the wall. The rest of the family came running into the room. Dodging the flying letters and not stopping until Uncle Vernon slammed the door behind them to stop any letters from coming out.

_"The does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time._

_"I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"_

It took Harry about seven seconds to grab all of his clothes and put them in his overnight bag that Mr. and Mrs. McFinn bought for him. He was the first one downstairs and the first one to put his stuff in the car. Aunt Petunia and Dudley however took a lot longer to pack their clothes. It took them ten minutes to get into the car, but most of that time took trying to rip the boards off the door and lock it all up again.

Harry found himself being slightly vindicated when Dudley got punished almost close Harry setting when he tried taking his TV, VCR and computer along with them. When they finally got done with loading the car, Uncle Vernon locked them all inside with a push of a button and drove off.

For hours they drove, not even leaving Little Whinging, going down one street, then another, and then for no apparent reason, they'd double back the way they came. It was no wonder they had to stop at two gas stations to fill up once again. But strangely, he didn't let Aunt Petunia go and freshen up, or let Dudley go and get a snack. Harry just sat in the backseat beside Dudley, leaning heavily against the door so Dudley couldn't reach him with his stubby arms.

He thought of Inspector Homes, wondering if he'd ever see him again. Maybe once all this letter business blew over or if Uncle got into an accident, he'd be able to speak to him. It all depended if he was admitted to the hospital or not.

Suddenly, a siren wailed from behind them.

"Goddamn it! What do they want?" shouted Uncle Vernon loudly. He pulled the car over sharply, causing it to go halfway on the curb. He turned the car off, and waited impatiently for the officer to arrive. Uncle Vernon glared at Harry from the rear-view mirror.

Harry didn't manage to break his gaze away from the look on his Uncle's face till a small knock came from the window beside him. He turned and saw Inspector Homes himself. Harry smiled brightly at the man, who smiled back at him.

"Where you off to, Dursley?" asked Inspector Homes.

"None of your business! This is harassment!" snarled Uncle Vernon.

"Unless I had a reason to pull you over." said Inspector Homes.

"You didn't have one!" spat Uncle Vernon.

"You're going down the wrong way on a one-way street." said Inspector Homes as he pointed towards the sign. "I was just coming back from lunch when I spotted you. How fortunate for me."

Inspector Homes didn't mention that he had been keeping close tabs on the man since Harry had first met Officer McFinn, and today was no exception. He had been notified that Vernon hadn't gone to work which was unusual for the man with a perfect attendance record. He had also not seen Harry for several days and that had him worried for the poor boy's life. He placed an undercover man at Privet Drive to keep an eye on the house. He received word that they had left, and that Harry was still alright. He just wanted a tail put on them, until they left the jurisdictional limits, but when Vernon began driving erratically and breaking traffic laws, he decided to step up and confront the man himself.

Uncle Vernon looked forward at the sign, his face turning red.

"Well, just give me the blasted ticket and get it over with." said Uncle Vernon with a snarl.

"I will in a moment." said Inspector Homes. He turned to look at Harry. "Are you alright?"

Harry nodded, he was in fact fine, it's just…Uncle Vernon was having a nervous breakdown.

"He's fine!" shouted Uncle Vernon. Inspector Homes looked intently at Uncle Vernon, then looked at Harry.

"Want to come with me for a while?" asked Inspector Homes. "Till your Uncle calms down a bit?"

"I'll be okay." said Harry softly. He knew that if he left now, especially being the reason that they're on the run, it wouldn't go well for him when he came back to the Dursley's house.

"And he'd better be." said Inspector Homes sternly to Uncle Vernon. He wrote out the ticket and told Vernon to turn around in the closest driveway. He reached over Uncle Vernon's shoulder and patted Harry's head, "You let me know if you need anything."

After their confrontation with the police, Uncle Vernon decided to leave Little Whinging entirely. They drove until Dudley began to nearly cause everyone in the car to go deaf from his screaming. He had been deprived of all of his favorite pastimes, eating, playing computer games and watching TV. Harry couldn't even summon up empathy to feel sorry for him today.

Hours later and well into the night, they finally stopped at the only hotel that had any vacancies, and Harry could easily see how that was. The hotel wasn't quite as cheery and welcoming as the other ones they had passed and this one was way out of the edge of town. Aunt Petunia wanted to go back to some of the nicer looking ones but Uncle Vernon had to remind her that there were no spare rooms to be had in any of those.

Dudley wanted his own room, but the hotel didn't want to have the liability of someone under sixteen in a room all by themselves. So Dudley and Harry had to share a room together, which didn't make Harry's life any easier.

Dudley's snores could wake Elvis.

Due to the noise, Harry couldn't sleep, and he couldn't stop thinking of whoever was sending the letters, and why they were so persistent. Nothing he knew of could be that desperate that people would go to these lengths to try and reach him. He thought though, that simply going on a bit of a road trip wasn't going to stop those letters from coming until they almost buried them alive.

He walked over to the windowsill and sat down on it. He looked around slowly, taking in all the nighttime sights. His stomach was churning; he never could sleep when he got worried about something. When Officer McFinn died, and Dr. Clark left, and Mrs. McFinn went away, he would go days without sleep. The only time he could sleep was if he cried himself past exhaustion.

He placed his head on the cool glass and looked up at the moon, judging by the time of the year, and where it was hanging, it was two-thirty in the morning. Harry looked over at the clock on the wall, two on the dot.

_Damn, I need to work on that._ thought Harry.

Harry stretched on the windowsill and stayed there, completely awake until the moon finally gave way to the rising of the sun. Once seven o'clock had rolled around, he and Dudley climbed downstairs to the breakfast that was served. After what Harry saw what was being served, he was almost prepared to offer to cook for the whole hotel.

Even Dudley, who claimed he was wasting away to skin and bones, stuck his nose in the air at the cold cereal and the soggy tomatoes.

"I wanna eat something else! It's Monday! I want my cinnamon waffles." whined Dudley.

Harry rolled his eyes and continued on with his cornflakes. Before they got up to leave their small table, when a woman came over to them, Harry recognized her from her photo in the lobby, she was the owner of this "charming" hotel.

She was a woman that could be considered a tomboy, if she were younger. She had short hair, which stuck up just as badly as his did. From her outfit, he could tell that she wasn't above going about yard sales for her clothes, though she had a hotel to manage and judging by the guests, and the prices, she should have a lot of money.

Harry looked at the pair of pants she wore, and saw fresh dirt just below her knees. The lawn and greenery outside wasn't kept up, but the stains beneath the dirt were quite old, she had to be digging somewhere.

Harry only hoped that she wasn't either burying bodies or money in her backyard.

"'_Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."_

_She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:_

_Mr. H. Potter_

_Room 17_

_Railview Hotel_

_Cokeworth._

Harry barely held in a smile, he might be able to get his letters after all! Uncle Vernon wouldn't dare rip them in front of him now. Strange though, they didn't have a reservation, how did the addresser know where they would be staying and in what room? This was getting to be a bit scary, whoever the letter writer was, was getting to stalker level real fast.

Before Harry could even take ahold of the letter, his uncle knocked his hand aside roughly.

"_I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and followed her from the dining room. _

Harry could hardly believe it, despite there being plenty of witnesses; he still denied Harry his letters. Harry wished he was twenty years older, and five feet taller. He'd give Uncle Vernon a piece of his mind, though he'd also have to weigh about a hundred pounds more as well, to even think about doing something.

They checked out of their hotel, and piled back into the car. It was once again the longest car ride Harry had ever had to sit through. It was nice getting out of the house, but this was getting ridiculous.

Uncle Vernon began driving all over creation looking for God knows what. Harry was forced to see the unappreciated sites of England, a field, parking garages, woods and even the middle of a bridge. Uncle Vernon would stop at the strangest places and it didn't matter, especially on the bridge if there were cars behind him. He managed to piss off pretty much everyone a quarter of a mile immediately behind them.

It seemed to go on forever, drive for hours, park the car, drive for hours, park the car, it was getting monotonous. Finally Uncle Vernon pulled over next a vast coastline, what made this little stop different, was that Uncle Vernon locked the car doors with all of them inside. He then turned and walked towards the little coastal village behind them.

They all sat in the car, just waiting. Dudley was complaining that he was missing his favorite show, The Great Humberto or something along those lines. Every Monday he wouldn't shut up about him. It was almost like clock-work, Dudley would run around the place trying his best to imitate people just like the man on the telly. Harry got really sick and tired from all the squawking he did around the house trying to sound like Aunt Petunia. If he said it was supposed to be a vomiting parrot then he'd be right on the money.

But then he thought about it a bit deeper, if it was Monday...then tomorrow was his birthday. He stopped looking forward to his birthday after he turned five, he only gave a damn when the McFinn's and Dr. Clark were around. After that, his birthday was really nothing more than just another day during the week.

Just as suddenly as he left, Uncle Vernon came back. He had a long thin package tucked into his elbow and had company. There was a guy coming that seemed to be from one of those really old sea stories, or at least the guy that sits in the nearest pub and tells those kinds of stories till your ears fall off.

"_Found the perfect place!" he said, "Come on! Everyone out!"_

Harry climbed out of the car and followed where Uncle Vernon was pointing to the most run-down shack of a building he had ever seen. That's the perfect place? And we're staying there?

"_Storm forecast for tonigh__t!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully_.

Harry stared at his Uncle. They were going to stay in that hut in a storm? That place didn't look strong enough to repel a fog, let alone a freaking storm! He then looked behind them, there was a boat bobbing in the waves that wasn't there when they first stopped. No, he's not that stupid…

"_I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"_

He had to be kidding.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review**

**Let's see now...what's a good, QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER!?**

**Hmmm...Here's an obscure one: _Favorite Song from a Disney movie?_**


	29. Chapter 29 Yer A Wizard

**Man, lately I've been giving some tough Questions lately, I couldn't pick a favorite one!**

**But there was one that I absolutely love, and it's not even in the movie.**

**Lollypops101: **_**If I Can't Love Her**_** from the Beauty and the Beast (Broadway play)**

**I LOVE this song! If you want to look it up, go to youtube, and type in If I Can't Love Her. I recommend the John Barrowman version. It's to die for!**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

They piled into the rowboat in the tremulous water, as the Dursley's arranged themselves, Harry knew what was coming.

"Alright boy, get us over to the rock." said Uncle Vernon.

Harry groaned and took ahold of the oars. He strained with all his might to move the boat back towards the hut on the rock. The water kept crashing into the side of the boat and rocked everyone inside about something awful.

For almost a complete half hour Harry tried getting the boat to go straight, but the boat kept twisting and turning on him. He wasn't nearly strong enough to keep the boat going where he wanted. Not only that, waves continued to slam into the side of the boat, causing everyone to almost tip out into the churning waters.

"Get a move on!" shouted Uncle Vernon.

"I'm trying!" said Harry as he pulled back on the oars with all his might. Finally Uncle Vernon had enough and shoved him backwards in the boat and took over the rowing. With Uncle Vernon rowing the boat, they finally reached the hut on the rock and made it safely inside.

The stench of seaweed met his nostrils, and caused Harry to recoil. He looked around the room, he was amazed that Aunt Petunia didn't' faint on the spot after looking around. The entire room was filthy and freezing cold.

Uncle Vernon tipped the bag of rations out onto the only table in the room and out tumbled a big bag of chips and some bananas.

"This is it?" asked Aunt Petunia. "Dudley needs more nourishment than this."

"After that hotel, it was all the cash I had on me." said Uncle Vernon in a gruff whisper. "This only has to last us till the storm passes, I'll go and get more food tomorrow."

They ate the chips and bananas in the icy coldness of the hut. The wind, rain and bigger waves bashed into the hut. Harry couldn't stomach much of the rations that Uncle Vernon brought, he was still feeling a bit nauseous from the rocking waves. He couldn't wait for Uncle Vernon to get the damn fire going. The only downside was, there was no wood, or even paper to start it.

Uncle Vernon sneered up to Harry as he tried to set fire to the potato chip bags unsuccessfully. "_Could do with some of those letters now, eh?"_

Uncle Vernon was in one of his better moods, but Harry was in his worst. This entire place rock and rolled too much for his liking, he was afraid that if the wrong wave came by, they'd be swept right off this miserable rock.

Dudley wasn't too worried about that though, he was more worried about missing his T.V shows and video games. Dudley wanted his snacks, cakes and fizzy drinks. Uncle Vernon forgot to bring anything for them to drink and salt water only made them feel ill and even thirstier. Well, Harry did try and warn the stupid lummox.

The storm finally arrived outside their shabby little hut, pounding into it harshly. Aunt Petunia went into the only bedroom the hut had and brought out some old moldy, moth eaten blankets, she took great care to make Dudley a comfortable bed out of the sofa while tossing a thin blanket out to Harry.

This didn't surprise Harry in the slightest, they seemed to think that despite how thin he was, he didn't' feel the cold. He always did however, every year it would get cold; he could feel it cut through him like a knife. He took the blanket and tried to find somewhere a little warmer to sleep, which was a lost cause.

The wind and rain veered heavily into the shack and cold wind broke through the cracks in the wall, causing Harry to shiver under the thin blankets. His stomach rumbled softly, now that the motion sickness was over he was hungry, but the food was long gone thanks to Dudley.

He looked over to Dudley, who's snoring almost fitted perfectly with the thunder rolling around in the heavens above. Harry placed his glasses back over his eyes and peered at Dudley's illuminated watch, it was a few minutes until midnight, and then it would be his birthday. He had a feeling that only he himself would remember that, the Dursleys weren't known for making this day memorable for him.

Harry nearly bolted upright when he heard a creak outside; he scooted a little ways towards the chimney and fireplace. Out of the entire shack, the fireplace and chimney seemed to be the only structurally sound place, so if the roof were to fall in on them, he could dodge into quickly. He moved his arm towards Dudley, prepared to drag him to safety with him.

Harry didn't like him, but Dudley was still his cousin.

All this nonsense of driving all day, staying in grungy hotels and this pitiful shack, could have been avoided if Uncle Vernon just gave him his letter. After all the strange delivery of the letters, he felt that somehow, he would receive a letter at the very least tomorrow.

Dudley's watch ticked further on towards midnight, closer and closer his birthday approached. As the watch continued on his steady ticking, more and more sounds were coming from outside. Harry was getting pretty excited now, almost as if he were going to start running, or working.

Just as the final ticks of July thirtieth came to a close, he had a mad desire to wake Dudley up, as a little present to himself. When the final tick came and went and the first tick of his birthday began, a giant explosion came from the door. Harry looked up at the door in panic, was it a stone or was it…someone coming in?

The sound came again, yep, it was someone trying to come in.

Dudley sat up in his bed, looking slowly around _"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly._

Harry almost said "Right outside, go and check." but he stopped himself. Sometimes, Dudley could be an unholy demon when he woke up, he didn't want to push his luck.

A crash came from behind them and saw Uncle Vernon hurrying into the room, with a gun in his arms. Harry now was frightened, his Uncle had never held a gun, let alone fire one before. His Uncle, in his own frightened state, had the gun backwards, the barrel pointing directly at his chest.

Harry saw his Uncle's stupidity and hurried over to him, Uncle Vernon didn't try and fight the boy off, but had his eyes fixed on the door. Harry took the gun away from his Uncle and flipped it around the right way. It a smooth motion, he placed the safety on the gun and unloaded the shells. He had seen enough of Dudley's shows to learn where almost everything was, and had taken a quick lesson from Officer McFinn about the safety rules of guns.

_"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you-I'm armed!"_ He didn't sound nearly as threatening or confident as he tried to.

The booms stopped, but then the door fell with a loud crash.

Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley began to scream, while Harry flattened himself against side of the fireplace. How was he going to get out of this one? Running was all he could do, but he couldn't run on the water, and he wasn't even close to being strong enough to row the oars so he could cross the water. He was trapped.

Harry snuck a glance at whoever their visitor was and nearly gasped. _A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles._ He had never seen someone so large before.

The giant struggled a little as he made his way into the small hut, once he had made it inside; he picked the door up and fitted it easily inside the frame of the door. The giant finished placing the door back and then turned to face the Dursleys.

_"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."_

Harry almost instinctively went to go and make a cup of tea for the giant man, but stopped himself. Not only was this person a stranger, but they didn't even have the basic things for tea making. This giant's voice wasn't what he thought it would be for someone who looked so fearsome. The man's voice did sound gruff, but it held gentleness about it. Harry came slowly out of his hiding place, but he slowly retreated when the giant came walking towards the dark fireplace and the sofa. Dudley looked up to the giant in fear.

_"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger._ Dudley hurried to go hide behind his mother. Harry liked him already. The giant then turned to face Harry, Harry stood his ground.

_"An' here's Harry!" said the giant._

Harry stared at the giant in shock, how did he know his name? He took a careful step back. He looked at the giant's hands; his fingers didn't have the dexterity to write as neatly as letter writer did, so he wasn't person behind them. He had never met this giant before; he would have surely remembered it. Forgetting this man would be next to impossible.

_"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes."_ The giant man smiled.

He did? This person knew his parents? He had never seen a picture of his parents, never even had a clue to what they looked like. Now he wanted a mirror, in order to actually study his features a bit more, to envision what they actually looked like. If this giant knew his parents then maybe he could tell him more about them, or at least show him a picture of them!

Uncle Vernon had enough, he had a feeling what this person was here for, and he wasn't' going to have it. He had to kick the giant out, before his greatest fear was realized.

_"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!" _

_"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant. _

It was official, this giant and he _were _going to get along. He watched in amazement as the giant man took the gun easily from his brutish uncle and bent it with great ease, and then then tossed it lightly into the corner.

Uncle Vernon squeaked loudly and backed up, pushing his family a little closer to the wall behind them. Harry couldn't help but feel a pang of anger; his uncle was willing to put himself in front of his wife and child, but not his nephew. That pang of anger gave way to a faint sort of jealousy towards Dudley.

_"Anyway-Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here-I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right." _

He brought out a slightly squished box from the inside of his large hairy coat. He handed it to Harry, who took it tentatively. Mrs. McFinn, Dr. Clark and Officer McFinn always told him not to take anything from strangers, especially not food or candy. Well, as long as he didn't eat it, taking it and putting it down somewhere for the time being wouldn't hurt.

Harry took the box into his hand, and from the weight and the scent that came from under the lid…he lifted the lid with shaking hands. Inside the box was a green iced cake with the words _Happy Birthday Harry_. He saw a small crumb on the side of the box, a dark brown, so this cake was a chocolate cake. No one, besides Mrs. McFinn, had ever made him a cake, he was speechless.

Looking up at the giant, the words _thank you_ got lost somewhere in his throat and were accidentally exchanged for "_Who are you_?" He didn't mean to sound rude but this night was just way too much.

_The giant chuckled._

Harry sighed with relief, at least this giant wasn't insulted, that was the last thing he needed right now, especially if he had the strength to twist a rifle into a pretzel knot.

_"True, I haven't introduced meeself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." _Hagrid extended a hand to shake it in a friendly greeting, Harry slowly took his hand. Harry made a mental note to _not_ piss this man off; just shaking his hand caused Harry's shoulder to almost dislocate itself.

_"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."_

Harry looked nervously at the fireplace; he didn't quite know how to break it to Hagrid that they didn't have any wood for a fire, or a kettle for tea. Hagrid followed Harry's gaze and snorted at the empty fireplace in disgust.

He leaned forward, blocking the entire fireplace from sight. No one said a word until he pulled away from the fireplace with a roaring fire going. Harry sighed in relief as the warmth washed over him. Harry looked into the cheery light of the fire as Hagrid pulled out a teapot, packets of tea, a tarnished copper kettle, a package of sausages, a few white, chipped mugs for the tea, a poker and a bottle of something amber colored. When he opened the bottle, Harry could smell a delicious smell of butterscotch as Hagrid took a drink of it.

Soon, the light and warmth of the fire crept into every inch of the hut and the smell of the cooking sausages came hurriedly afterwards. Harry's mouth began to salivate, he hoped Hagrid would offer him some of the sausages. His wish was granted when Hagrid offered him the plate.

It seemed almost like an hour had gone by, Harry had munched greedily on the sausages, leaving plenty for Hagrid, but he didn't seem to want any at the moment.

Hagrid kept looking at Harry out of the corner of his eyes; he saw that Harry was shivering and that he was really thin. Perhaps he's been sick, that would explain why he's so pale. If the Dursleys however had a hand in it, they'd answer to him and the Headmaster.

No one was talking, so Harry decided to pick up the conversation again. "_I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are_."

"_Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts-yeh'lll know all about Hogwarts, o'course"_

What the…? Hogwarts? That's the name of a place? **"**_Er-no," said Harry._

_Hagrid looked shocked._

_"Sorry," Harry said quickly. _Harry used to apologizing for anything when people look shocked or angry.

_"__Sorry?__" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"_

What? What was Hagrid talking about? Was Hagrid the letter writer, but his hands didn't match. And as for his parents…learned all of what? How to drive? They died in a car accident, that's all he knew about them.

_"All what?" asked Harry._

_"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"_ Harry thought Hagrid was going to yell at him, but instead, Hagrid turned and faced the Dursleys with the fiercest scowl he could muster.

_"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy-this boy!-knows nothin', abou'-about ANYTHING?"_

Harry thought that was a bit much. He knew quite a bit, sure he held back on Uncle Vernon's demands, but he still was one of the top students in his school, and the pre-admission exam to the secondary school he was going to go to were excited to have him. His new science teacher said he was going to set up a challenging course for him to go by.

_"I know __some__ things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."_ God he sounded stupid. Why wasn't his brain working well with his mouth?

_"About __our__ world, I mean. __Your__ world. __My__ world. __Yer parents' world."_

This was turning into a science fiction story. What was he? Some alien or something, was this some sort of sick joke?

_"What world?"_

Hagrid was getting angrier and angrier with every passing minute.

_"But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean they're __famous.__ You're __famous__."_

_"What? My-my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"_ How could his parents be famous? If they were really all that famous, his Aunt Petunia would flaunt their names and use them in society all the time, but she never mentioned them.

_"Yeh don' know...yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare._

_Of all the people, he doesn't know._ thought Hagrid with a confused look.

_"Yeh don' know what yeh __are__?" he said finally. _

As far as Harry knew, he was an eleven year old boy, with no parents, fairly intelligent, a good cook, and a fast runner, other than that no, he had no idea.

_"Stop!" _yelled Uncle Vernon_. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"_

Harry nearly jumped a foot in the air, he had completely forgotten that Uncle Vernon was still there. Uncle Vernon was worried about something, a thought struck Harry and almost made him laugh. What if he was some great superhero, a prince of a distant land, an alien from another planet, or a wizard like those in the fairy tales Mrs. McFinn used to tell him? The idea was just too funny to even take seriously.

_"Kept __what__ form me?" said Harry eagerly._ He was getting very curious about what was so big that the Dursleys would allow someone else to tell him.

_"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic._

_Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror._

_"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. _

_"Harry-yer a wizard."_

Harry was floored. _What did he say?_

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**Thanks for reading! Happy Easter!**

**Question of the Chapter! _What is your favorite Easter tradition_?**

**Mine was when we were little, all the kids would across the street to the park and fly kites, all the while, the parents would hide the Easter eggs full of small candy bars.**


	30. Chapter 30 Proof Beyond Proof

**Not a whole lot of reviews last time, well...it was Easter.**

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**Last Question of the Chapter: Favorite Easter tradition?**

**Mo. auxier: The egg hunt and dyeing eggs. **

**_I love dyeing Easter eggs, I was the only one doing it this year and it took me 2 hours! I buy the specialty boxes and make different kinds. Not the ones with the stickers though, I don't like those._**

**Pauline07: We'd forget to buy eggs and so we'd hide the little plastic ones.**

_**Yep, my family did that too! Though I don't know if anyone forgot to buy real eggs, we'd always just hunt up the plastic eggs.**_

**Arturhawkwing11: For me it's Easter service :) Now I get to run sound for it :)**

_**Congrats!**_

**Wulffle: Easter ham dinner.**

_**We normally eat ham too, but this year we had turkey for some strange reason. **_

**Racheal Weasley: Going to my great-grandmothers and having a feast.**

_**We go to my great-aunts, we have lunch and then play either Wii bowling or play card games.**_

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**I hope that everyone had a pleasant Easter, and if you don't celebrate that, I hope you had a nice weekend!**

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing; this had to be some sick joke. But whose joke was it? Uncle Vernon hated jokes, unless they were jokes he told at work, or ones in very poor taste. But this joke, to go this far to dash his ultimate wish of escaping them sooner than when he came of age, was a bit much. But then again…this was Uncle Vernon he was talking about; he'd have to keep an open mind, and prepare to snap it shut if this giant person couldn't produce some evidence.

_"I'm a what?" gasped Harry._ He finally found the voice he had been trying to use.

_"A wizard, o'course," said Hagrid, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit._

_Trained up? Trained up by who? And where? _Harry couldn't fathom that Uncle Vernon would let him learn magic at his house. And who would teach him what he needed to know? There's not exactly a magical school nearby, and how would he learn? You don't find magic books like that in the local bookstore. Well, at least ones that sounded like real magic…not that he knew what real magic was.

_With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."_ said Hagrid with a smile.

Like a bell to Pavlov's dog, Harry's ears twitched slightly at the word letter. He was going to get it? One of his letters? He'd finally know what all the fuss was about!

He hoped it wasn't a bill of some sort.

Hagrid reached deep into one of his pockets and pulled out a letter, same envelope, same writing as the countless other ones that pursued them across the country. Harry took the envelope into his shaking hands and read the envelope, curious on how they would address it to him here.

_Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on the Rock, The Sea._

He highly doubted any postman would come to deliver it on this forsaken rock. Not without a submarine and the ability to breathe underwater just for safety precautions. He opened the envelope and read his long awaiting letter.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely, _

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Minerva McGonagall, _

_Deputy Headmistress._

Harry had to reread the letter several times to actually make it stick in his brain.

There was a school, and it was called Hogwarts? What the heck kind of name was that? Then again, Smeltings wasn't exactly a poetic name either. Order of Merlin? Someone had to be kidding, but if it was magic…Merlin was the best choice. Grand Sorc? It had to mean sorcerer, Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump? What the heck was a mugwump? International? How many wizards in the world were there?

He read the letter a little further down and noticed that he needed books and other things. Where the heck was he supposed to find what he needed? Then he noticed a pair of dates, the day the school term began and…they await my _owl_? Don't they mean call? Or letter? If they need a letter, he was done before he even began.

_"What does it mean, they await my owl?"_

_"Galloping Gorgons, that reminds me."_said Hagrid smacking his head hard.

_Note to self, don't do anything that makes him smack you. _thought Harry quickly.

Hagrid reached into another pocket, it was like Mary Poppins' bag, there was no end to it! He reached in and pulled out a tiny owl that seemed to have seen better days.

He wrote a quick note on a bit of old fashioned parchment, took a hold of the owl and tossed it into the storm. Hagrid turned around as if he weren't worried about the poor bird he just chucked out into the raging tempest.

_Isn't that animal cruelty_? thought Harry as he stared at the owl struggling against the wind, but it finally disappeared into the night. He couldn't believe what was going on, if this was real, actually real…then he got his dream! Well, a partial part anyway, he'll get away from the Dursleys for a little while.

_"He's not going."_ said Uncle Vernon with a growl.

Harry looked at the size of Hagrid and then the size of Uncle Vernon, it was no surprise who was going to win that fight. Hagrid could easily knock Uncle Vernon clear into Germany with just one finger. If Hagrid said he was going somewhere, Harry was going somewhere.

_"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said. _

_"A what?" said Harry, interested. _He couldn't help it, Mrs. McFinn hated swearing, but that didn't' stop him from learning all the swearwords he could. For intellectual reasons of course.

_"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it' s your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."_

Harry wondered if he meant that figuratively or literally, cause Uncle Vernon was easily the…well…now…second biggest man he had ever seen.

_"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!" _Uncle Vernon made a loud snorted noise and folded his arms.

Harry looked up at Hagrid and saw that he had turned a little pale, something about what Uncle Vernon said upset Hagrid quite a bit. What was it? And what did Uncle Vernon mean stamp it out? All the thrashings he had been thorough his whole life, was that him _stamping_ it out of him? This was becoming way too much for him to think about. He had so many questions and he didn't know who the hell to ask.

Then it struck Harry, they _knew_. They knew he was a wizard! If they knew, why didn't they tell him? Or use him to further their own gains? That would have fit perfectly in with their personalities, so what made them just hide him away?

When he voiced that, well, as much as he dared, his Aunt Petunia let loose all of her frustrations and ranting she held back for almost ten long years. Harry never knew just how jealous and angry she was towards his mother. And it didn't even stop there; she went after his dad next.

_"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as-as-abnormal-and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"_ spat Aunt Petunia.

The blood drained from Harry's face, what did she just say? His parent's….it wasn't a car crash? Blown up? All those years that the Dursleys told him that his parent's got into an accident, they added the touch that his father was drunk, and he believed them. He could feel his stomach turning and twisting, and his throat was no better. He wanted to just run into the corner and get sick.

_"Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"_

_"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not known' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"_

_How the hell do they know my name? _thought Harry wildly.

_"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently._

_"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don't know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh-but someone's gotta-yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'. Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh-mind, I can't tell yeh everything', it's a great myst'ry parts of it..."_

Harry listened to Hagrid and tried very hard to put it together in his mind. His quick assessment was pretty much the following: There was this nutcase, with the strangest name he had ever heard, that decided to go and take over the world like some overdramatic Dictator, or someone that loved those old fashioned movies that Dr. Clark liked to watch.

And the Headmaster of the school that he was supposed to attend was the only person that terrified this Voldemort person. So that was a bonus, if there was a dangerous guy roaming about the country, he'd be safe if the guys worse nightmare was in charge of the place he was heading.

For some reason, Voldemort wanted his parents dead, not even Hagrid was sure on the details from that point onward. All Hagrid knew was that the year that Harry had turned a year old, and on Halloween, was the day his life went straight to hell.

And if that story alone wasn't bad enough, a flash of memories went shooting through his head. A flash of green light, almost like an explosion and then, a high cold and cruel laugh. He didn't need to meet the psycho to know if it was his voice he had just remembered.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts and sneaked a glance at Hagrid, who was looking down at him with a look that made Harry think someone more recent just died.

_"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."_

_"Load of old tosh." said Uncle Vernon._ _"Now, listen here, boy." he snarled. "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured-and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion- _

Harry couldn't help but snarl. _It's not your opinion that matters when it comes to my folks. _thought Harry with a growl.

"_asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types-just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end-"_

And that right there was the straw that broke the camel's back, Hagrid was the perfect picture of one pissed off giant. Harry almost wished he could take his chances out in the storm as opposed to what that giant might do.

Hagrid was furious. _How dare they? How dare they say that in front of HIM? Can't they see what they're doing? __"I'm warning you, Dursley-I'm warning you-one more word..."_

Hagrid made his point crystal clear to Uncle Vernon. That man flattened himself against the wall like a piece of wallpaper. He smirked at the man, _"That's better,__" he_ went back to sitting on the couch, flattening it to the floor.

Harry wanted to revel in that look on his Uncle's face, but he had way too many questions.

_"But what happened to Vol-, sorry-I mean, You-Know-Who?" _He wanted Hagrid to keep answering his questions, abiding his simplest wishes would keep the man talking, and he wanted those answers.

_"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see...he was gettin' more an' more powerful-why'd he go?_

Harry pondered that, what _would _make him go? He'd have to inquire about that, maybe someone one else though.

_"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back._

_"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on-I dunno what it was, no one does-but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."_

Hagrid then stopped talking, he fixed Harry with a look that he hadn't seen since Officer McFinn took him to the Junior Track Championships. He missed that look, and it almost brought tears to his eyes, but in Hagrid's eyes, he didn't know what he deserved to get it.

He still couldn't believe he was a wizard, all those years, being smacked around by Dudley and Uncle Vernon he could have fought back if he had known. He wished he had, then maybe…he could have saved Officer McFinn. Hang on…if he had the ability to use magic, then maybe he could find Dr. Clark. That Private Eye he hired years ago sure isn't doing too hot. But seriously…

_"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard." _

_To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. _

_"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"_

Harry thought about it, all the times he managed to outrun Dudley, before Officer McFinn began training him. The time his teacher's wig turned blue, the fact that he didn't die from the all of the beatings Uncle Vernon gave him that landed him in the hospital, the sweater with the puff balls, his hair growing faster than the grass on the lawn, the list went on.

Hagrid smiled down at Harry when he looked up at the giant. Hagrid mentioned that word again, _famous_. How could he be famous for something he didn't even remember completely. He hoped that no one would recognize him and that he could just go about his business.

_"Haven't I told you he's not going?" _hissed Uncle Vernon_ "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish-spell books and wands and-"_

Uncle Vernon did have a point, spell books and wands can't be found in the normal shops in Little Whinging. And he didn't want to give Uncle Vernon the satisfaction that he was grateful for being allowed to go to Stonewall High, but if this got him away from the Dursleys, and not just on a half day basis, he was all for the opportunity to go to another school.

_"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him." growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled-"_

Harry couldn't help but smile at the Headmaster's name, just something inside him made him feel protected. This confused him; he had never met the man before, so why should he feel that sort of way?

_"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon._

_This won't end well for Uncle Vernon. _thought Harry with wide eyes.

Hagrid looked ready to heave the entire shack out into the middle of the sea. _"NEVER-" he thundered, "-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE-IN-FRONT-OF-ME!"_ He raised his arm, with the pink umbrella pointed high into the sky, almost scraping the ceiling, and brought it crashing down, pointing it at Dudley.

Harry had to shield his eyes from the bright violet light, suddenly he heard Dudley squeal like a pig and when he opened his eyes, and nearly laughed out loud.

Dudley was hopping around with his hands over his wide bottom trying hard to shove the curly pig's tail that had sprouted from his rear end, back into his body. Aunt Petunia saw what had happened to her "sweet" little boy and dragged him to the bedroom where she and Uncle Vernon were sleeping in. Uncle Vernon followed them quickly and slammed the door behind him.

Harry was about to burst from holding his laughter in. Finally! Someone could outmatch Uncle Vernon in the ways of strength! Now that he knew Hagrid, and if he could find a way of getting a hold of him at any given time when he really needed it, Uncle Vernon would never hurt him or bully him again!

_"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully,_

_Are you kidding, that was the greatest thing I had ever seen! I don't doubt you anymore!_ thought Harry with glee.

_"but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."_

Harry almost snorted with laughter again. _Pig, that's him alright._

_He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows._

_"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm-er-not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'._

_Huh? Why can't he use magic? He seems able to do some pretty awesome stuff so far? _thought Harry quickly. _If he didn't want me to tell anyone at school, then I'll do whatever he wants. He's earned my silence big time._

_I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff-on o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job-"_

_"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry._

If Mrs. McFinn were to hear the question he just asked, he'd of been told off for sure.

_"Oh, well-I was at Hogwarts meself but I-er-got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."_

_"Why were you expelled?"_

Harry was really lucky Mrs. McFinn wasn't there. He had accidentally made her mad a few times, and she could get pretty scary.

_"It's getting late we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagird loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."_

_He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry._

It was so large that Harry could have wrapped it around himself several times, from head to toe.

_"You can kip under that," he said. "Don't mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets." _

Harry didn't question why there were mice in the pocket, probably to feed the owl that Hagrid had just chucked out the window.

Hagrid went to lean against the wall, but Harry stopped him.

"You can sleep on the couch Hagrid." said Harry with a smile.

"I'm fine. You younger, you need a good night's sleep." said Hagrid.

"I'm fine, I'd rather sleep right by the fire anyway." said Harry with a smile.

Harry laid the tattered blanket down on the floor, but Hagrid replaced it with one of the thicker ones. "If yeh want to sleep on the floor, then sleep on that, it's a bit more comfy.

Harry laid down in front of the fire with the large coat over him like a blanket. Hagrid kneeled down beside him and did his best to fluff up one of his sleeves. Hagrid smiled warmly as he watched Harry snuggle down under his coat and fall right to sleep.

"Welcome back, 'arry. Welcome back." said Hagrid with a warm smile. He tenderly ruffled Harry hair and went to go sleep on the couch. His eyes didn't leave the child sleeping beside the fire till his eyelids became too heavy to and finally he allowed them to close.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

**Question of the Chapter! _Which do you prefer? Oreo, or Chips Ahoy! ?_**


	31. Chapter 31 The Leaky Cauldron's Crowd

**My goodness, I think I only had one or two people say Chips Ahoy! So, Oreos for the win!**

**I don't own Harry Potter. Remember: **

**_Conversation and phrases from the books. _**

**_Harry's thoughts._**

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The next morning, the sun shone through the cracked window, and streaked gently across his face. A small groan escaped Harry's lips and he covered his head with the coat that covered him like a heavy quilt. He didn't want the sun to come up, he was still exhausted from the night before.

It all had to be a dream, a strange yet wonderful dream. He finally could get away from the Dursleys, and he would possibly learn more about his parents! Someone had to be able to tell him something of what his parents were like.

But it had to be a dream; this was way too good to be true.

Suddenly a tapping sound came to his ears, he pulled the blanket off him and looked at the window. There was another owl sitting outside the window, this time it had something to deliver. He also looked to the couch, and saw Hagrid, fast asleep on the sofa that seemed almost completely crushed flat.

He felt a smile break his face for the first time in a long time. It wasn't a dream, it was _real_.

He ran as fast as he could to the window to let the owl inside. The storm was over but perhaps the owl was exhausted and needed to rest a bit. He opened the window and the owl, not seeming to be tired in the slightest, dropped what looked like a newspaper on Hagrid and just decided to attack the blanket (Hagrid's coat)!

_"__Don't do that."_said Harry trying to keep the owl from destroying Hagrid's property.

The owl wasn't having any of that, it clicked it's beak angrily at Harry who tried to chase it off, and still went on tearing and digging at the coat.

_What the hell is going on with this darn bird?_ thought Harry. _What's it trying to get to?_

_"Hagird!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl-"_

_"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa._

_"What?"_ Harry stared at Hagrid, Pay him with what? Harry had no money, and from the looks of Hagrid's coat and appearance, he didn't seem to have much money on him either.

_"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."_

So owls were pretty much a…wizards…version of the mailman and paperboy? How the hell do you train an animal to do that? And from the look of the little pouch on the owl's leg, this owl wasn't Hagrid's personal delivery owl.

Harry swatted off the owl finally and began digging through the numerous pockets that were in Hagrid's coat. Finding money in this coat was like trying to find a stolen cookie in a daycare, once you thought you covered that kid, turns out you missed the other four running around him.

He checked the first pocket and found a bunch of keys, some were rusted, silver, gold, jewel encrusted, and some were even oddly shaped. There had to be a thousand different types of doors at this school, if he was _Keeper of the Keys_. He picked up a small golden key that he almost overlooked.

It was pretty heavy, so it had to be made out of pure, solid gold. It had a small golden 'G' for the actual key part, but then on the handle part, it had a diamond encrusted 'P'. He had to tear his face away from the key, because the owl was starting to have a bit of a feathery temper tantrum.

He looked in another pocket and brought out a handful of little blue pellets. Harry recognized immediately what they were, both Mrs. McFinn and Aunt Petunia used them in their gardens, these were slug pellets. Well, if he was the Groundskeeper, he could see why they would be in his pocket. He wiped his hands on his pants and continued looking for the elusive money.

He found another pocket, a small stash of peppermint humbugs. If Dudley had stuck around and found out Hagrid had candy, there wouldn't be any left. Harry would have taken one of them very quickly, taking a leaf out of Dudley's page, but…he saw some sort of fuzz that didn't match any part of Hagrid's coat on the candy. He put the candy down and tried once more to find the money.

In the same pocket he found a few balls of string, and a few teabags. Well that explained where he got the stuff to do the tea…but…no matter how many pockets there were, how did Hagrid fit that teapot in his pocket?

All this different kind of stuff, what the heck did it have to do with each other? Nothing seemed to coexist smoothly with anything else he found in this man's pockets.

He checked the next pocket and he finally found what he was looking for, his fist came out full of coins, of different metals and different sizes and shapes. There were small bronze coins, medium sized silver coins, and larger golden coins. Now all he had to do was find out which one he was supposed to give him and how many of them.

_"Give him five Knuts." said Hagrid sleepily._

_"Knuts?"_ What kind of name was that for a coin?

Hagrid told him it was the bronze ones, and when he looked at the coins a little closer, he felt embarrassment flood his face. It said what they were right on the coin, damn, he felt like such an idiot.

He placed the coins in the little pouch on the owl's leg, he had half a mind to drop an extra coin in the owl's pouch, but it wasn't his money to just hand out like that.

Once Hagrid finally got off the couch and was reasonably wide awake, Hagrid told Harry that he was going to take him shopping for all of his school supplies. Harry looked at Hagrid and then looked at the money; he could feel a hole just start drilling itself into him, bringing his spirits crashing down. He could vividly remember Uncle Vernon's words last night, he was _not_ going to pay for Harry to go to this school.

_"I haven't got any money-and you heard Uncle Vernon last night...He won't pay for me to go and learn magic."_ said Harry worriedly. He wouldn't have been all that worried, if he had the money to pay for his own stuff. He had transferred quite a bit of his money over to the elderly jeweler and his family. The rest was saved to fund that Private Eye he hired years ago to find Dr. Clark. He didn't really have any to spare at the moment, what was he going to do?

_"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"_

_"But if their house was destroyed-"_ Harry said.

He remembered that strange ledger book that he found in Dudley's old room a few weeks ago and how ticked Uncle Vernon was when he found it. It had the number of an account inside and the amount of money in the account was staggering. If his parents were anything similar to the Dursleys, maybe they had a ledger like Uncle Vernon did. If they did, and their house was destroyed…

But Hagrid assured Harry that the money wasn't in the house, but stored safely in the bank…a wizard's bank. This sort of information was a bit much for Harry to digest so early in the morning. How do wizards have their own private bank? Wouldn't non-magical people accidentally go in there? Especially if it was staffed by goblins like Hagrid said?

_"Goblins?"_

_"Yeah-so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. _

Harry did his best to hide a smirk. He loved a challenge, he hoped that he could test out the bank sometime in the future.

_Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe-'cept maybe Hogwarts"_

He worked really hard to wipe the smile off his face, he made a solemn promise to whoever was listening to his thoughts that he wouldn't take anything from that school. Last thing he wanted was a bunch of kids exiling him and calling him a thief for testing security. The only safe way he could do it was letting a teacher know about what he was doing…never mind…he wasn't going to even think about doing that.

" _As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do impo__rtant stuff fer him. Fetchin' you-gettin' things from Gringotts-knows he can trust me, see."_

Harry almost blushed so vividly that Hagrid saw, he was regarded as _important_? By someone he had never even met before, and yet he wasn't very important in the eyes of his family. This made little to no sense actually.

Harry and Hagrid gathered up all their things and headed out the door of the weather-worn shack. Harry looked around outside for Hagrid's boat, but there was nothing tied up to the rocks but the boat that Harry and the Dursley's used to get here.

Harry asked Hagrid how he managed to get to the rock, he remembered what Hagrid looked like and he didn't seem wet enough to have just crawled out of the sea. Also, the tea bags were dry, and so was the cake.

Hagrid said that he flew, all Harry could think of was, _that must be one tired bird or a very squashed plane_. Without saying anything else, Hagrid climbed into the boat and waited for Harry to follow suit, but Harry was more than hesitant about leaving the Dursley without a means of escape from the rock.

But the temptation of seeing more magic was way too great. Hagrid used it to send the boat across the water, as if the boat was being propelled by a motor at the back of it. Hagrid had made Harry promise that he wouldn't tell anyone that he used magic, and Harry once again happily yet solemnly agreed. This guy was his well, he couldn't quite count how many adult friends he had but now Hagrid was easily one of them.

On the way to shore, Hagrid told him more about the magical world, and inadvertently more about the security of Gringotts. Though he mostly spoke of the inefficiency of the…what did he call it? Ministry of Magic? There was a Ministry of Magic? He had never heard of that! The Queen introduced him to all over the Ministers when he went to the Queen's Garden Party last, and he couldn't remember anyone being called Minister of Magic.

Well, there was that one guy that the Prime Minister introduced him to, it was some old guy that stared at Harry pretty hard, and he never knew why but that couldn't be him. He didn't look the part of a wizard, then again, neither did Hagrid or himself for that matter.

It was in no time at all that they finally reached the harbor on the other side. Harry's mind was racing, just for the fun of it he was coming up with ways of infiltrating that bank Hagrid was talking about. Hagrid mentioned that there were dragons guarding some of the vaults, well, maybe he could make a small portable fire extinguisher somehow.

Harry followed Hagrid up the stairs to the village that the Dursleys had stopped at the day before. As they headed towards the station, a thought struck Harry. If Harry just left the Dursley's on that rock without a way back, he'd pay for it much later. The moment they passed a police station, Harry ducked inside and told them about the Dursleys on the rock. He didn't mention that he knew them or tell them what happened to the boat. He only said that the family was stranded. Once he told the authorities he hurried after Hagrid.

Hagrid took him straight to London, and led him to a dingy pub with a wooden sign that said 'Leaky Cauldron'. Hagrid said it was famous, but famous for what? Being the only place to survive a fire, earthquake and hurricane all in one? It looked like the worst things happened to this building all at the same time and then had a low budget contractor rebuild it.

They walked inside; Harry thought that perhaps the dark and dingy exterior wouldn't extend to the interior. The dingy part was gone, but it was still pretty dark. There were several people sitting around in the darkened in the room and drinking their beverage of choice and discussing a multitude of different things.

Harry was a little worried about going into a whole 'nother way of living, he had some strange daydreams about learning to like frog's breath tea, and eating cockroach cookies. But the food looked normal and the drink a pair of elderly women were enjoying smelled and looked just like normal sherry.

The bartender looked up and Hagrid and greeted him warmly, asking him if he wanted his usual. Harry smiled, if Hagrid was going to enjoy something to drink, maybe he could get a bit of lunch in, the sausages and nibble of cake seemed like a long time ago. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get his way, but that wasn't Hagrid's fault, it was everyone else's fault for swarming them.

Hagrid didn't say anything that warranted everyone freaking out and crowding around them, so why did they get so excited? All they wanted to do was pretty much shake Harry's hand and say how great it was that he came back. Back from what he wasn't too sure, and how they knew his name and everything was a bit freaky. He supposed it was the whole famous thing, but he didn't really do anything, it was his mom and dad that did the special things.

Especially when he saw someone he recognized from a long time ago. This guy bowed to him once in a shop and then disappeared without a trace. Aunt Petunia from that moment forward never took Harry to that store and forbade him to go there on his own. And when he voiced that memory, minus the Aunt Petunia part, he was so excited, as if the Queen shook his own hand.

Amidst the throng of several people wanting to shake his hand, he met his first Hogwarts teacher. Harry couldn't tell right off if he was just a nervous person, or if he put way too much sugar in his cereal when he was younger, because he had a bad stuttering problem and his hands and one of his eyes were twitchy.

The man it turned out was the teacher for the class Defense Against the Dark Arts class at the school Harry was going to attend. Harry always figured that people were destined to do the jobs they set out to do, like Officer McFinn and Dr. Clark, this guy, fate royally screwed up. Professor Quirrell, as was his name, seemed to be more comfortable selling doilies in a pillow factory as opposed to teaching defense.

Hagrid finally got Harry out of there, wanting to delay it for some reason and let everyone crowd around him. If Hagrid wasn't so large and able to knock him completely through a brick wall with a flick of his finger, he would have told him off for doing that. Harry wasn't comfortable with people invading his personal bubble.

He followed Hagrid to the back of the Leaky Cauldron, where there was a brick wall enclosed courtyard. Harry watched as Hagrid tapped the wall with the point on his pink umbrella and pushed Harry gently back away from the wall as it opened to reveal a street behind the wall that couldn't possibly have been there before.

**"**_Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."_

Harry's mouth was hanging open. He could hardly believe his eyes. There were shops all alongside the road and several dozen people doing their shopping down the Alley. Inside the windows, even from where he stood, he could see strange yet interesting things in the stores.

The first store was a cauldron shop, with collapsible, copper, silver, solid gold and self-stirring cauldrons. Potions…Hagrid listed off all the classes he would have to take as they walked through the village after taking the boat, and potions was one of the classes he was most excited about. If Potions was anything like the chemistry class then he was all for it! He wanted to go and investigate them further, but Hagrid stopped him and led him further down the street.

"_W__e gotta get yer money first__"_ said Hagrid walking down the street.

They walked down the street, Harry looked from side to side just as quickly as he could, trying to memorize the shops that lined the street. He saw a shop that sold owls, potion ingredients, a bookstore, clothes, and even an ice cream parlor/

They passed a strange shop selling brooms of all things, they came in different sizes, shapes and colors. Why anyone would want fancy broomsticks was beyond Harry. Then he heard someone mentioned the words "fastest model yet." For what? Cleaning? If it were for cleaning, then why would those kids be huddled around it? Then he remembered a few of the things he "knew" about witches, they rode on broomsticks.

You had to be kidding. How the hell do you ride _on_ a broomstick? Do you ride it side saddle or do you swing one leg over completely? That last one sounds like it would hurt quite a bit.

Hagrid led him further along the way, passing a potion ingredient shop, a stationary store, and a store selling telescopes. Harry wanted to look around a bit more and go down the other little side street, but Hagrid stopped him.

"'ere we are, Gringotts." said Hagrid.

Harry looked up and saw a large white building, with different columns adorning the side, standing in front, with an official looking uniform was a short…person?

_"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid__._

Harry stared at the creature, this was a goblin? The goblin was a short creature, with long ears, fingers, with pointy teeth and _clever face_. Harry and Hagrid walked past the small goblin and found themselves in front of a pair of silver doors.

Strangely enough, the doors had writing on them.

_Enter, stranger, but take heed,_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours, _

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there. _

_"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid_. "They post that sign ter warn strangers, though I gotta admit, it's been a while since anyone was foolish enough ter try."

Harry gulped painfully.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

**Question of the Chapter: Another preference question! _Cake or Pie?_**


	32. Chapter 32 The Owl Chooses The Wizard

******Hey It's another chapter, sorry it's a little late, I normally have it up by 9am my time. **

******A lot of you like pie more than cake and a few of you like both! **

******For me personally, I'd have to say cake. My favorite one that I made was a Raspberry Fudge Torte...oh my god was that good! p; Yummy yum yum!**

******I don't own Harry Potter**

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Harry and Hagrid walked inside the large marble bank, passing different goblins lining the side counter, the jewels they were inspecting and weighing were some of the largest he had ever seen. When they reached the end of the room, and as Hagrid spoke to a goblin on a desk all by himself, Harry's eyes strayed to a row of goblins counting a several mounds of coins and writing the totals down in ledgers. Harry only passively noticed Hagrid's conversation with the goblin, his eyes jumping from different goblins to the layout of the bank.

Breaking into this place might take a bit of magical learning to do in some places, but for the most part, he felt confident that his own skills could stand up against what this place had to dish out, even the dragons that Hagrid mentioned earlier that day.

But the thing that knocked Harry out of his plotting ravine was Hagrid handing the goblin a letter.

_An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's all about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."_

Harry turned his head quickly and saw the letter exchange hands, _You-Know-What_? What could that be? Was it something for the school? If it was, why so secretive?

He asked Hagrid about it, but he didn't tell, said it was worth more than his job. So…that told him, it was either top secret works, which made no sense for a school to have, or it was highly dangerous, which also made no sense for a school to have.

If Harry thought he had seen everything there was to see so far in Diagon Alley, then this swooping mine cart ride was the clincher that there was more than what met the eye in this world. The ride itself was so terrifying and fast that Harry absolutely loved it. It reminded him of the carnival rides that Officer McFinn rode with him when they went to the amusement parks.

He tried to make notes on which direction their cart took, but it would take at least one more trip to get the directions right.

Harry looked up to Hagrid excitedly, the giant man had been very quiet, he asked a simple question, hoping to strike a conversation, but with as green as Hagrid looked, it was no surprise that he wasn't up for conversation.

"I've got some gingerbread, do you want some?" asked Harry over the crashing cart.

Hagrid shook his head fiercely.

"It'll settle your stomach!" said Harry loudly, but Hagrid didn't hear him as the poor man retched over the side of the cart. Harry desperately hoped there was no one underneath them, no one deserved that sort of surprise. Harry was relieved for Hagrid when the cart stopped outside a door in the wall, so Hagrid could lean against something far more stable than the cart. When the goblin opened the vault, Harry nearly fell backwards in a dead faint. There was so much money…he had never seen this sort of wealth, least not laying in front of him like this!

_"All yours," smiled Hagrid. _

Harry stared at the money, this was _his_? All he could think of was thank god the Dursley's never saw this, or they would have ran off to Majorca or at the most Rio with it and without _him_. He could almost hear his uncle try and justify using it for their own needs and wants.

"_You've wasted enough of our money, it's time we got some of it back for our uses!"_

Then another thought struck him. If he had known about this money sooner, he wouldn't have had to do the security testings! Then again, if he had known about the money, his parents would have been alive too. They would have shown him it a long time ago.

After they shoved some coins into a small leather pouch they picked up the "secretive package" from the other vault. As small as it was, Harry couldn't see what the big deal was in it. He figured that Hagrid asked him to keep so many secrets, it wouldn't hurt to keep this one either. And besides, he picked up some useful information about the security measures about the bank:

_Only goblins could open certain vaults in this place_

_Dragons guarded some of the high security vaults_

_The passage way to different vaults didn't follow the same track they went on to his own._

Once they left the bank, the pouch hanging on Harry's side full of wizard gold and silver, just waiting to be spent, jingled excitedly which matched Harry's mood. Hagrid however needed a bracer and went back to the Leaky Cauldron for a stiff drink to bring the color back to his cheeks. Harry wholeheartedly agreed.

So Hagrid knew where Harry was while he went to go for a pick-me-up, he told Harry to go and get his uniform. Hagrid had Harry promise that he wouldn't wander off and would just stay in the building until he came back to fetch him and if he listened, he would get a treat.

Harry wanted to tell Hagrid that he was a bit too old to be bribed with sweets, but he didn't want to ruin Hagrid's bargaining chip. He had actually wanted to go and make something for Hagrid to get the feeling back in his stomach. With Dudley, he had been used to someone being so sick in the house they want to throw up, Dudley would always eat way too much, but sometimes even his rotund body would resist and fight against it's master's wishes.

But Hagrid was firm in his decision so he turned and entered the shop behind him, he wasn't all that confident about going inside a wizard's shop alone. He didn't know what to expect and without Hagrid, he felt absolutely vulnerable.

When he entered the shop however, it seemed as if he entered the normal world again, it was a normal clothes store. The only difference was, the coats were a bit longer than normal.

A short woman, wearing a mauve dress and cloak looked over at Harry as he walked in. She smiled at him and before he could even say hello, she cut him off.

_Hogwarts, dear? Got the lot here-another young man being fitted up just now, in fact"_ said the woman, who had to be Madam Malkin, especially when she had a brooch on her bosom with two M's intertwined.  
Harry looked to the back of the shop and saw a thin boy with blonde hair standing on a stool getting fitted for a set of black robes. Harry looked him up and down quickly.

_Highly polished shoes, buffed nails, no visible calluses, pale skin, every hair in place, and is…wearing some sort of cologne or perfume, great a rich kid. _thought Harry. _Then again, I'm a rich kid now too I suppose._

Madam Malkin led Harry to the other stool beside the boy and wrapped a black fabric around the young man and pinned the areas that he needed.

He had never had an outfit made around him like that, it was sort of nerve racking to stand perfectly still so he didn't poked with all the needles this lady was using.

The boy who was standing beside him began speaking to him. Harry didn't want to be rude to someone who could be a friend, so he listened.

Being rude to this kid might have been the better choice it turned out. This guy sounded almost like an intelligent version of Dudley. He mentioned something about Quidditch…what the hell was that? He talked about playing for his House and then mentioned something called Slither-Inn and Huffle Puff. In comparison to this boy, Harry could feel his I.Q. draining away to almost nothing.

_"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly_.

Harry looked and saw Hagrid standing outside, true to his words, he bought a treat for Harry. Two large ice creams. Harry smiled and waved back at Hagrid, that was really nice of him, he didn't have to do that. He wondered if the wizarding world had different flavors then the regular world. He could almost see the different flavors run through his head: Frog Lip Swirl, Cockroach Crunch, Bat's Blood Blend, and Rocky Road might actually have bits of gravel and hardened tar.

Maybe he'll pass on the ice cream.

_"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts." _

_"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"_

It's official, he was _not _going to like this boy one bit. Especially when he began to badmouth Hagrid, and spouting some nonsense about a different sort of people. Great racism exists here too, how do such stupid people crop up everywhere?

Then the boy asked for his last name, and before Harry could even decide whether to answer him or not, Madam Malkin finished his robes and led him to the counter to pay for them. Harry couldn't figure how he got down before the boy ahead of him was. Looking a bit closer at the boy's robes out of the corner of his eyes, this boy's robes were made of silk, while Harry's was a polyester/cotton mix. He didn't mind in the slightest, he didn't want to think what a set of robes made out of silk would cost, and…last thing he wanted to show up to school looking like was a dainty little boy.

His thin frame and pale skin would do that for him.

He paid for the robes, nodded to the boy, (just because he didn't like him, didn't mean he couldn't be uncivil) and hurried out to Hagrid. Thankfully, the flavor of the ice cream wasn't what he thought they would be, the ice cream wasn't an odd shape, nor were their animal body parts sticking out. It was a chocolate and raspberry cone with nuts on the top.

He took a small lick out of both scoops, because the sides were slowly dripping down. He found the taste of chocolate and raspberry dancing close together on his tongue, with the slight crunch of chopped nuts following soon after.

He hadn't had ice cream in such a long time, and no ice vendor or supermarket had these two flavors in one pint before, he'd have to come back next time and get this ice cream again!

But that boy's words kept coming back into his mind. _Houses…Slither-Inn, Huffle Puff, Quid itch, what the hell were any of those words supposed to mean?_

He wanted to ask Hagrid about it, but he wasn't all that sure what his rules were about stupid questions, hopefully, he wasn't as strict with them as Uncle Vernon. It wasn't till after they left the stationary store that Harry finally opened up and asked Hagrid a few of the many questions that he had bouncing around in his brain.

It turned out that Hagrid was only more than happy to answer any and all questions he had. Hagrid tried telling Harry about Quidditch, but he couldn't quite get the point across, and as for the houses, they were separated parts of the school.

"…_.Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but-"_ said Hagrid.

"_I bet I'm in Hufflepuff." said Harry gloomily._

But Hagrid reassured to him that being in Hufflepuff wasn't bad, especially compared to Slytherin where he learned that the man that killed his parents belonged. Suddenly, going to this school lost it's luster, he would got to the same school that his parent's went to, that was awesome in itself. But going to the same school, walking the same halls, and reading the same books that the man that took his family away did…he could feel a deep desire that sometime very soon the school would set itself on fire before he got there.

Hagrid didn't let Harry shut himself away into his thoughts because they had some more school shopping to do. Since they were closer to the book store he decided that they should stop in and get the books first.

Harry couldn't believe how many books there were in this place. He expected books to be just on a shelf like any normal bookstore or library, but no, there were books on the floor, under glass, hanging on the wall (for some strange reason), hanging from the ceiling on string (for some even stranger reason) and the books were all sorts of different sizes and shapes.

"Alrigh', all we need teh do is go to the counter and…" said Hagrid pointing to the counter, but when he looked down, he saw Harry scampering off to look at all the different books there were. He tried to keep up with Harry, but every time he thought he spotted Harry in one section reading a book, he'd be in another reading another book! Though Hagrid really couldn't call it reading, all Harry was doing was flipping through the pages of each book, putting it down and running to another section.

Hagrid finally cornered Harry, after what seemed to have almost a whole hour of chasing him all over the place, in the Curse section. Hagrid caught him reading _Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) __by Professor Vindictus Viridian._

Not wanting continue on chasing him all over the store, Hagrid took the book out of the youth's hands, picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder. Harry tried to escape from Hagrid's clutches, but was unsuccessful.

_"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."_ said Harry, trying to convince Hagrid to put him down and go back to the book. But Hagrid kept Harry over his shoulder, even as he paid for the books out of Harry's money, and carry them out of the store. Harry wasn't even embarrassed by this; actually, he found it quite funny.

_"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."_

_Bad move Hagrid, you just made me have an obsession._ thought Harry maliciously. The downside was the whole 'No magic outside school' thing, maybe there is another way around it.

Hagrid wouldn't put Harry down until they left the bookstore behind and entered another store, this time it was a cauldron shop. The walls were full of shelves loaded with cauldrons of different sizes and metals. There were gold, silver, copper, pewter, self-stirring and collapsible cauldrons around the shop.

Harry figured that potions class had to be like chemistry and he supposed that these were just over sized test tubes and beakers. His list said 'Pewter' on it, but what difference did it really make to get a silver one, it was pretty much the same, except the price was a lot higher. Self-Stirring would most likely take all the fun out of it. Collapsible…he didn't quite like the sound of that, what if there was something corrosive in the cauldron and it got out and all over the floor? He hated the smell of copper, it constantly reminded him of the taste of blood whenever Uncle Vernon or Dudley would smash him in the mouth causing him to bust his lip or knock out a tooth, (which always seemed to grow back). The gold cauldron attracted his attention, but the price on the label nearly made him fall to his knees. six hundred galleons?

Well, he easily had that much in his account at Gringotts, but he really couldn't see a use for it, especially if he didn't know any potions yet. Still, he soon would if a potion called for it, maybe it wouldn't hurt to buy it ahead of time. Before he could speak to the shopkeeper about it, Hagrid stopped him.

"_It says pewter on yer list._" said Hagrid holding out said list.

Harry smiled. Good thing Hagrid was there so he didn't blow all of his money. So instead of blowing it all on one thing in that store, he spent far less and got a scales and a telescope for Astronomy class. That was another class Harry was looking forward to. Whenever Harry could get away from the Durslesy and spend the night at the McFinn's, Mr. McFinn would take Harry out with his own telescope that he got as a youth and show Harry the stars. Thanks to Officer McFinn, he could find any constellation or important star with ease.

But apparently, it was more than just finding the North Star and navigating about the heavens.

They left the cauldron shop and headed next door to the Apothecary. Harry was very interested in seeing the different ingredients, but his excitement was cut by at least a third when he tried to breathe. The smell of all the ingredients nearly burned the hairs inside his nose and almost caused him to gag.

He worked had to get used to the smell so that he could thoroughly investigate the store. Inside barrels, in wooden crates and in giant glass jars he could see strange looking animal parts and even a few bushels of herbs and flowers. Hagrid, noticing that Harry was having a difficult time breathing, bought Harry's potion ingredients while Harry stared at the unicorn horns, which was by the open door. Just learning about magic the day before was one thing…but…_are there really unicorns too_? Hagrid mentioned dragons on the way here, so…he wasn't just being silly…

He had a lot to learn.

Once they left the apothecary, Hagrid offered to buy Harry a birthday present, a pet. Harry could feel a blush creep up his face. He didn't want to put Hagrid out, least of all feel obligated to get him a present just because it was his birthday.

Hagrid led Harry over to a shop called Eeylop's Owl Emporium, and entered it. Harry began to look around the store to find a suitable owl; there were at least a dozen different breeds of owls in cages all about the place. He didn't know how he was going to choose.

Before he could really walk around and inspect the different olws, a man in his middle ages brushed past them roughly, nearly knocking Harry into a large box of owl pellets beside the door. Thankfully Hagrid caught him by the scruff of his neck before he could fall in.

Harry looked over to the man and saw a birdcage in his hand, inside the cage was a beautiful snowy owl, beautiful but really pissed off. She was trying to snap her beak at the top of the cage, a futile attempt at trying to get to the man's fingers.

"This ruddy bird you gave me is useless! She doesn't deliver my mail and she just sleeps all damn day and night! And if she doesn't sleep, she just bites me all the time!" shouted the man angrily, he slammed the birdcage down on the counter.

The shopkeeper sighed, took the owl and gestured at some of the other owls. "Alright, take your pick of any other owl we have."

"I don't want another owl! If _she_ was like this, what does that say about your other owls? I want my money back and right now!" said the man sharply.

"I'm sorry sir, but it's a no return, exchange only policy we have here." said the shopkeeper calmly as he pointed to the sign that said so behind him.

The man flew into such a rage that Hagrid kept his hand on Harry's shoulder, ready to pick him up at any sudden moment. He would have taken Harry outside and waited for it to all blow over, but Harry wouldn't move and Hagrid felt slightly bad about throwing Harry over his shoulder. The man then drew his wand and waved it over his head, causing small explosions to erupt all over the store, knocking the locks off all the cages and freeing all the birds.

The shopkeeper yelled, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Give me my money then!" shouted the infuriated man.

Owls were zooming around, trying to peck at anything they could. Hagrid picked up Harry and held him close to him, the door had been magically locked to stop any owl from escaping. The owls that tried to get at Harry only managed to slightly tear at Hagrid's moleskin coat.

The shopkeeper tried to repair the damage as the man continued to rant and rave. He caught birds flying in midair with a spell and ushered them back into their cages, making new locks appear out of thin air.

The man scowled angrily at the shopkeeper as he managed to recover several of his owls. Then his eyes fell on something behind the counter, with the strongest lock yet. There was a black cage, tucked away in the back. Inside was the foulest tempered owl that the world had ever seen. It had long jagged talons and a jagged beak from attacking the bars of it's cage.

Harry saw the man smirk and wave his wand once again, breaking the lock on the wild owl's cage.

The shopkeeper screamed "NO NOT THAT ONE! HE'LL ATTACK EVERY THING AND EVERYONE!"

"That should teach you to make customers happy!" said the man, laughing maniacally and magicking the door open and then locking it behind him.

Harry wriggled free of Hagrid's protection and hurried over to the Snowy owl that was still locked in it's cage.

"'ARRY, I NEED TEH GET YEH OUTTA HERE!" shouted Hagrid.

"She'll be killed!" said Harry running towards the owl. Before he could grab the cage, the black owl swooped over to owl still trapped in it's cage and attacked it fiercely.

Harry looked to the shopkeeper, but he was busy with trying to protect the other owls from the black bird's eminent attack. Hagrid was more determined about protecting Harry then trying to help Harry protect this unfortunate bird. So Harry ran to where a broom stood beside a small pile of feathers, brought it up and smacked the black owl as hard as he could into the wall.

The owl fell to the floor and laid there stunned.

Harry took the cage and ran behind Hagrid. He didn't want the owl to get up and start attacking him or the bird in his arms. He noticed quickly, that the owl didn't start attacking him, like she did her previous owner, but sat perfectly still and watched him. Harry peeked from behind Hagrid, who raised his arms, anticipating an aerial attack,

The shopkeeper, once he got the final bird in it's cage, noticed the bird on the ground. He took a wicker basket that had bags of owl treats in it, flipped it over and trapped the bird. The owl took that moment to wake up and tried tossing the basket off itself, the man saw this and sat upon it.

The man looked over to the giant man and the small boy and smiled weakly. "What can I do for you folks today?" his voice was shaky and a little high-pitched.

Harry looked at the owl in his arms, she was still watching him, Harry couldn't tell if she was looking at him in awe, or with suspicion.

"I'd like to buy this owl please." said Harry walking over to the counter, with the Snowy owl's cage.

The man paled, "I don't quite know if that's the best owl, she doesn't like to deliver anything, and is too proud and likes to bite." said the shopkeeper warned. _And I don't want this to happen again._

"I don't care, I want her." said Harry with a smile.

"On your own head, I'll expect you tomorrow when you bring her back." said the man tiredly. He waved his wand over the wicker basket and stood up to take the money. He punched a few numbers on the old fashioned register and the total came up to ten galleons. "I normally sell my owls for twenty-five, but for you, ten."

Harry reached for his money pouch, but Hagrid stopped him and dropped the money on the counter, he also bought a few boxes of owl treats, and a small perch for the snowy owl to sit on. Harry saw an ornate collar that had small diamond rhinestones on it. When Harry picked it up, the owl fluttered excitedly.

"So you want this?" said Harry with a smile on his face. He hurried up to the counter and paid for that out of his own money before Hagrid could. "You paid for her, I'll pay for her accessories."

The next and final stop they had to make was to pick out a wand, and that was the most….well, the strangest experience he had so far and that was saying a lot. When he first walked in the door, he felt a shiver pass through his body and straight into his brain. Was this magic? If it was, how come he didn't feel it in any other shop?

Mr. Ollivander was a strange fellow as well, and he didn't seem to take into consideration other people's personal space, especially not that enchanted tape measurer.

He was quick to discover that picking out a wand that had an interesting looking handle and wood of his choice was not the way to get a wand. Apparently the wand chose it's wielder and whether you liked how it looked or not, you didn't have any say in the matter. Mr. Ollivander seemed to like it that way best, because with each passing wand he got more and more excited. It wasn't until his fifty-seventh wand that he finally found the perfect wand. And by perfect, it actually did something and it made his whole hand shiver and grow warm. A fountain of sparks shot out of the end of the wand in his hand, for a moment, he thought he broke it.

Before he could even apologize, Hagrid and Ollivander applauded and smiled brightly.

_"Curious...curious..." _muttered Ollivander as he wrapped Harry's wand in box. When Harry asked him why, Ollivander looked up and stared at him. _"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather-just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother-why, its brother gave you that scar."_

What the…he and the mad man that killed his parents share the same sort of wand?

_It's official, I'm cursed. _thought Harry gloomily.

* * *

******Thanks for reading! Please review!**

******QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER!: **___**What is the strangest cake/pie you've ever made/eaten?**_

******I made a Mountain Dew cake in the shape of Scooby Doo...yes...Mountain Dew as in the soda/pop.**


	33. Chapter 33 Silent Conversations

**Wow, there was a lot of strange cakes and such! Some maybe me hold my stomach there a bit!**

**If you read Forging a King or Exploring Harry Potter's Life last week, I said that a family member was in the hospital. Well, she's back out (THANK GOODNESS!) I said I might not be updating this week, but everything worked out okay and here I am updating! **

**Another note, in a few days...ITS MY BIRTHDAY! YAY!**

**I don't own Harry Potter...but that would make a great birthday present! *Hint Hint* *Wink Wink* *Nudge Nudge***

* * *

They left Diagon Alley just as the afternoon was drawing to a close and evening was coming upon them. The Leaky Cauldron was almost completely deserted and Harry looked up expectantly to Hagrid.

"Are we going to stay here?" asked Harry hopefully.

"Uh..no…I gotta get back to Hogwarts, you're goin' back to the Dursley's." said Hagrid sadly.

Harry felt as if every good thing that had happened today, turned into a living nightmare. After what had happened the night before, almost ten years' worth of secrets finally coming to life, and them being abandoned on a rock in the middle of nowhere, going back to the Dursley's wasn't the best idea.

"Do I have to? Can't I just stay here until school starts? I'll be good, I swear!" said Harry earnestly.

Hagrid looked at him sadly. "Sorry, but I can' let yeh stay here on yer own."

Harry looked down. He knew there was a chance he wouldn't be able to get away with staying on his own, but he could always hope, though he knew it wouldn't be much help to him. What has having hope ever done for him?

He hoped for another relative to come and take him away. Nothing happened.

He hoped that the McFinns would be able to adopt him. Couldn't be done.

He hoped that the Queen could help his living situation. She was remarkably powerless.

Hell he even hoped that the Dursleys would just wake up and start being nice to him and even that didn't work.

They left the pub and walked down a few blocks to get to the Underground. They had to wait a while till an emptier compartment opened up for them. Hagrid's girth would have cut into about ten people's personal space so they opted to wait until the next one came. The other subway only had a few people on it, so Hagrid could get in easily and not disturb anyone.

They didn't try to disturb anyone, but that didn't stop people from staring at them in wonder, and in his owl's case, _shock_.

Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye a man staring very hard at him. The man had a strange looking crest on his jacket, it was a picture of a baby seal, with a tear running down it's cheek. Harry remembered Inspector Homes reading a file with that logo on the front. These guys were the Seal Guardians, they were animal right's activist who were very serious about their ideas and views.

Harry agreed with quite a few of their ideas about prosecution of animal abusers and people that who poach endangered creatures…but the way they were going about it…it was pretty extreme. They weren't like all the other activists who would hold protests, get petitions signed and speak to different members of parliament, these people would send threatening letters to people who worked in butcher shops, supermarkets, zoos, aquariums, pet stores and even farmers. They even sent a few bomb threats, started some house fires, assaulted some people and vandalized a few homes.

They wanted the animals of the world to be allowed to wander about and live in utter peace while people were supposed to live off of plants and fruits. They wanted to go without taking any resource from animals. Not even the ability to own an animal as a pet.

So if they had their way, there would be no more, milk, beef, chicken, fish, pets, horses…the losses would be massive! Not the best thing to happen, especially since the world revolves around the farming industry. People can go as green as they want, all the way back to medieval day tactics, Harry didn't really care. But without livestock, people would starve pretty quickly, plants can't reproduce as quickly as animals could. Not unless you included grass… and Harry didn't really want to try a grass burger.

Harry blinked a few times to snap out of his thoughts, and snuck a glance back at the man; he was still staring hard at him. Harry looked down at his owl who was resting peacefully with her head tucked under her wing. Well, that explained why the man looked upset, but thankfully, with Hagrid there, that guy wasn't stupid enough to try anything to him. Not unless he wanted to try and undo the knots Hagrid would tie him in.

Once they reached their destination, Hagrid and Harry walked out of the subway train, and then began to climb the stairs to get back topside. They were almost to the top of the stairs, with his owl's cage in his hands, when suddenly the cage was ripped out from his grasp and he was almost sent crashing onto the steps!

"Harry!" shouted Hagrid, as he caught Harry by the collar before he knocked all of his teeth out.

Harry looked around, trying to find who took his owl and saw the man with the Seal Guardian crest running further up the stairs with the snowy owl, who was fluttering and hooting angrily from it's cage.

"These poor creatures have suffered enough from the cruelty of man!" shouted the activist angrily. "You boy should be reported to the Royal Order of the Wings! They would be more than eager to show you cruelty to our feathered friends! I'll set you free, you beautiful _Bubo scandiacus!" _

_Did he honestly practice that speech? _thought Harry in shock. "Give her back!" he shouted.

He opened the cage with a flourish. "Fly, be free you beautiful creature…OW! WHAT THE HELL?"

The moment that the owl was released, she swooped around and immediately began to peck and scratch at the man holding her cage. Soon the man was covered with scratches and beak marks and he shielded his face with his arms.

The owl stopped just as suddenly as she had started, flew over and landed on Harry's shoulder and nipped the boy's ear. The man stared at Harry in shock.

"Yeh better scram before I give yeh what fer." growled Hagrid angrily.

The man stared at Hagrid in fear, but turned quickly. "The Queen will hear of this!" shouted the man.

_Take a guess who she'll side with. _thought Harry, almost smirking with delight.

Hagrid placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, though he retracted it quickly when the owl started pecking it, and led Harry up the rest of the stairs into the train station. He bent over and picked the cage up off of the ground and when Harry took it, the owl flew back into her cage with ease.

"What's the Royal Order of the Wing?" asked Hagrid.

"I have no idea, maybe another animal support thing." said Harry.

_"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves." he said._ Hagrid pointed over to a small seating area where there were several different stations of different types of food. Hagrid gave him some normal money to get something for the both of them. Harry looked down at the money, there wasn't a whole lot, especially if Hagrid had the appetite Harry thought he had.

Harry looked at the menus of each food station and decided on burgers, they were the cheapest things and the fries came in a large container, big enough for each of them to enjoy. He handed the woman the money and took the food back to where Hagrid was sitting.

As they ate, Harry looked slowly around, he could hardly believe it. Everything he knew, everything he saw, it was only a half truth, there was another world, another culture seamlessly coexisting with this one! And no one here was the wiser!

_"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid. _Hagrid was slightly worried; Harry hadn't spoken much, especially since the lunatic nearly knocked Harry right into the stairs. If Harry became traumatized on his watch, Dumbledore would never trust him with anything as important as Harry again! Forget slightly worried, Hagrid became officially extremely worried. Despite that the lad wasn't anything like he thought he'd be, he was an absolute treasure.

He expected Harry to act as adventurous and loudmouthed as his father, or eager and conversational as his mother was when she was younger. He didn't expect him to be quiet, withdrawn and shy…this took him off balance just a bit. But he was fond of Harry all the more for it.

_"Everyone thinks I'm special,"_ said Harry staring at his burger thoughtfully. He couldn't really understand why. Sure he remembered what Hagrid said, but from what he could tell, it was a fluke. It was like praising a guy for being superhuman when they survive a train wreck. And the books from Flourish and Blotts, some of the things in there didn't make any sense, did they make complete sense to other wizards and witches his age? Was all of his personal knowledge and accomplishments meaningless? Was he going to go from the top of his class to where Dudley normally was on a great day?

He expressed his feelings and thoughts to Hagrid, but Hagrid reassured Harry that he would be fine at school, he didn't touch base on the whole scar and Voldemort thing, but Harry supposed that Hagrid didn't quite feel comfortable about talking about it. Hagrid must have known his parents pretty well.

Hagrid gave him an envelope that had his Hogwarts train ticket inside, and ushered him towards the train back home. He told Harry to send a letter via his new owl to him if the Dursleys didn't treat Harry better, and then took a big step back away from the train's window. The train began to move and he watched Harry move slowly away from him.

_Wait, no…not again…I don't want this teh happen again._ He reached his hand out to grab the train and use all his strength to pull the train back, but suddenly a voice came at his elbow.

"There you are Hagrid."

Hagrid looked down and saw a tall white bearded figure that he knew so well. Albus Dumbledore.

"Shall we go back to Hogwarts?" asked Dumbledore with a smile. With a sharp _CRACK_ they were gone.

Hagrid stood in front of Dumbledore's desk in Hogwarts and gently placed the grubby package he had taken from Gringotts down on the oaken table.

"Any trouble?" asked Dumbledore with a smile as he sat down in his chair.

"With Harry or the bank?" asked Hagrid honestly.

Dumbledore paused for a second. "By saying Harry, you're trying to alert me to something, so I'll go with the bank to get that bit of information out of the way."

"Well, nuthin' happened, it was pretty much smooth sailing." said Hagrid with a shrug, he wanted to get passed the talk of the package, he wanted to tell Dumbledore all about Harry.

Dumbledore stroked his beard. "Smooth sailing? Hmm…"

"We're yeh expectin' trouble?" said Hagrid slightly confused. Did he plan on him failing?

"No, well…I suppose it was to be expected, but…the vault you just emptied today, was robbed. Apparently, after you had left." said Dumbledore lifting an opened envelope.

"Well…we didn't have no trouble like that, no one seemed all that shady, 'cept the nut that tried stealin' Harry's new owl." said Hagrid scratching the back of his head.

Dumbledore smiled. "Hmm, it seems that we cannot leave the subject of Harry, very well. How is he doing?" he placed his hand under his bearded chin. "It's been a while since I've seen the lad. Poor thing was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Well, I still don't like them Dursleys, Harry's awfully thin…" said Hagrid.

"Well, James was quite thin when he came to school, though he did eat more than three students combined. Lily also was quite slender, perhaps he gets it from them." said Dumbledore thoughtfully.

"Not that skinny. I could almost see his cheekbones." muttered Hagrid.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful up to Hagrid, but said nothing.

"Well, them Dursley's never told him nuthin." said Hagrid shortly.

Dumbledore's mouth fell slightly open. "Strange…I was sure that they would tell him the moment the letters came."

"They only kept on runnin', the only talkin' they did was insultin' yeh." said Hagrid gruffly. "I told Harry everythin', he took it pretty well."

"_You_ told him?" said Dumbledore slowly. Dumbledore was taken aback by that. Hagrid was a wonderful person, he would trust Hagrid with his very life if it came to that, but…such information…especially about a child's past loss…he normally did that himself. But…if Harry had taken it well…

"Then today I took him to Diagon Alley, everyone was pretty excited to see him again, a few hadn't seen him since he was still being held in James and Lily's arms." said Hagrid wiping his eyes. "Oh, and I saw Professor Quirrell."

Dumbledore looked up quickly. "Quirrell? What was he doing in Diagon Alley?"

"He said that he wanted to get a book on vampires." said Hagrid with a shrug.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, _Why go to Diagon Alley when he would get the book here, and for free?_

"…Well, then I took Harry to Gringotts, I'm still reeling from them carts. So he now knows about his family vault…I fergot to tell him he's got more than one." said Hagrid slapping a hand to his forehead.

"Well that's alright, he can be told later about the extent of his family's fortune. The trust vault is more than enough for any boy's needs and fancies for the next decade at least." said Dumbledore with a smile, his mind still on Quirrell and his reason to go to Diagon Alley. But Hagrid went on with his narrative of the day.

"I dropped him off at Madam Malkin's, went to go settle me stomach. Madam Malkin looked after him just fine, and then I took him shoppin' for his school supplies…" said Hagrid.

"I received word from Ollivander when you stopped…" said Dumbledore with a smile as he lifted another envelope.

"I swear I'll never use me umbrella again!" said Hagrid quickly.

"What does your umbrella have to do with anything?" asked Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye.

"…nu…nuthin sir." said Hagrid sheepishly.

"Did Harry enjoy himself?" asked Dumbledore with a smile. "This little excursion to Diagon Alley?"

"Aye, at least until some nutter of a muggle came up and tried stealin' his owl." said Hagrid quietly.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Dumbledore, the smile slid off his face slowly.

"Some nutter tried stealing Harry's owl." said Hagrid a little louder.

"And you stopped him I take it." said Dumbledore with a bright smile.

"Well, actually…it was the owl that did the stopping." said Hagrid. "Never saw a bird do what she did."

Dumbledore stared. "I see… Well, anything else you think I should know about?"

"Other than I still don't like them Dursleys?" asked Hagrid.

"Well, other than Harry's thin frame, and the insult to my character, was there anything else about the Dursleys that you didn't like?" he said with a smile.

Hagrid chewed his lip slightly, all he had were feelings, nothing really concrete, well…if the Dursleys overstepped their boundaries and mistreated his Harry, Harry'd send word and then he'd go and get Harry himself, and he'd have the proof he needed.

"Hagrid?" said Dumbledore.

"It's just a feelin' I don't have much proof." said Hagrid.

"Proof of what?" asked Dumbledore.

"I think them Dursley's may be mistreatin' him." said Hagrid quickly.

Dumbledore looked startled at Hagrid. He stood up out of his chair and walked swiftly over to the fireplace. He took a handful of green powder and tossed it lightly into the fire. He waited a bit, then a woman's face came swimming into the fire.

"Good afternoon Albus. What can I do you for today?" asked the woman's face.

"I wanted to ask you, Arabella, has anything happened to Harry while in the Dursley's care? Anything wrong?" said Dumbledore. He didn't want to steer the conversation towards abuse, then he may be getting some corrupted data, if there was any harm falling on the youth she would tell him.

"Well, there was a time years ago that I asked Minerva to come and check things out, I just had bad feelings about what was going on. But she said that coarse behavior on their part was all she could see. For a while he seemed to have been a bit happier, he was going over to someone's house, must have finally made a friend or two.

"Whatever I thought was going on in that house seemed to have stopped." said Arabella. "Well, I still get the feeling the boy is far from happy in that house."

Dumbledore turned from the fireplace to his gamekeeper.

"I-I'm sure that we're just reading it into it a bit too much." said Dumbledore with a faint smile.

At least, he hoped they were.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

**Question of the Chapter! _What was your favorite birthday present?_**

**In case you didn't know and you were fans of my first story Exploring Harry Potter's Life, it's still going on another website! Two actually...One is almost done with Chamber of Secrets and the other one is on Goblet of Fire! It's a Reading the Book fic, but it was my first story! It's a year and a half old!**


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